Steamscape (12 page)

His chest, back, neck and even his leg contracted together with his arms. His entire body felt like one single muscle. He heaved on the wrench.

The pipe snapped. Steaming water gushed free.

Jing leaned back out of its path as far as he could. Blisters and red burns were already growing on his hands and forearms. He eased his way down the network of supports and beams and back to the floor, pausing briefly to wipe the sweat and water from his face with his arm.

His muscles twanged and sagged. He hadn’t moved like that in years. He glanced back up to the pipe, twisted purely enough with a neat snap in it, like a child’s toy. Chalk that up to another legacy of the Hex. He couldn’t help but smirk – they were back in the saddle.

He pushed his way back outside. The people were crowding around soaking, sobbing smaller people. He fought against a smile at the reunions.

Drina was leaning on the edge of the tower, all but ignored in the rescue of the children. Theo was behind her, pale but standing up straight.

She shook her head slightly as he approached. “Some of the littlest ones had drowned long before. The rest… many of them will be scarred.”

“But they’re alive.”

She swung around to fall into step with him. Theo dumbly started to follow, just swallowing. They stepped through the townsfolk, who were too focused on checking and crying over their children.

“And now we vanish.” Jing swung away, ducking around the corner of a building.

“Are you with us?” Drina turned to follow, but looked back at Theo. “Or this is goodbye? None of us owe each other anyway.”

Theo glanced back over at the townsmen. But the Hex had just gone, disappeared like the steam, even though he knew they were just around the corner of the building. Of course he knew that.

He curled his fists. “You owe me Flame.” He kicked up dirt as he ran after them.

“Well, well, he decided to come,” Drina drawled. She tossed out a couple coins into Jing’s waiting palm.

“Thank you,” the mechanic quipped.

Theo fell into step alongside them. “I am not going to be cowed by you, Hex or not.” He stuck up his chin, trying to hide his trembling as the weight of knowledge finally caught up with him. “So now what?”

“Get back to our last orders: Solindra.” Jing didn’t glance down at him.

“Orders?” Theo scowled. “Whose orders?”

“Silvermark’s, before he died.”

“And that’s it?” Theo sneered.

“Of course,” Drina scoffed. “I know I’ve killed some loudmouths outside of orders before.”

“Death,” Jing warned. “We’re here for Solindra.”

“Right,” she said. “But we don’t even know which side Flame works for now.”

“But he took her alive,” the mechanic mused. “So she’s got to be out there somewhere, and probably not by the same people who are bossing Smith around.”

“In Redjakel then?” Drina guessed.

The mechanic shrugged. “Possibly.”

Drina sighed. “It’s the best lead we’ve got.”

“Without the fire, Solindra,”

“Yes, Miss Adri.” The vessel scowled at the full bowl of water in front of her. Her eyes flickered to the servant woman carting away the steaming bowl. This new ceramic bowl that had been left glistened blue through the clear water, but the liquid was tepid. Solindra tightened her brow in concentration.

“It’s pointless, Miss Adri.” She pushed the bowl away with her free hand and fingered her cipher medallion in the other. “I know the ghosts are there in fog and water, but they’re only alive in the steam. It can’t be done on a bowl of cold water.”

Adri shook her head and the golden chains in her hair tinkled together like tiny bells. “The aether is merely the medium through which energy can be transferred. That’s all we do, transfer of energy.” She held out her own purple sancta above the bowl. “You don’t need fire. People have quite a lot of water in their bodies too. It’s something to remember if you’re ever in danger.”

Solindra was only half listening. She watched as tiny bubbles began to form and then rise underneath Adri’s sancta. Soon, the bowl was bubbling along happily, and fresh steam curled off the water’s boiling surface.

The steam princess pulled her cipher medallion away from the table. The boiling immediately faded. “You do it, little bird.”

The young woman frowned again and held up her sancta. After a moment of nothing, she dropped her hands. She suddenly pointed to the window. “Do you think we can do this lesson outside?”

She sighed while staring at the world beyond the glass. In this high room, she could see enough of the city. Redjakel’s Light District had not been touched by the war. Boiler towers and electrum-coated skyscrapers reached up toward the clouds. Steam-ships drifted regally above them.

Down below, steam-coaches and horse carriages danced around golden fountains in the avenues. Women in the most brightly colored dresses strolled down the streets with their bustles and parasols, showing not a care in the world.

Adri slipped up behind the vessel. “Remember, none of this would be possible if not for the aether in the steam. Our technology would fail.”

Solindra pressed her hands and nose against the glass. “I’ve always wanted to see the cities like this! This is nothing like Valhasse. This has plazas with fountains and restaurants and–”

“You can’t, Solindra.”

The girl’s face seemed to melt.

“You can’t be found out. You’re too precious. You know how the common folk distrust crypters, especially after the assassination of President Falklind.”

Solindra sagged. “That’s just a story. It was never proven.”

“You know your factual history. Good.” Adri stepped up to the window and also put her hand on the glass. “But the truth is often pliable. People chose to believe the story, so it’s more true to them than whatever actually happened. And so every last crypter was hunted.”

“I know, but…”

“People hated us long before that. It was just an excuse for what they already believed. And yet, the Priory are the ones holding up Codic. I surmise they’re fine with the general fear of crypters as it keeps their competition down.”

“This is a whole war against crypters, isn’t it? Is that the truth? Steampower is attacking crypters.” Solindra pulled her hands away from the window and watched her breath fade from its polish. “This whole war is just so your father could go after the Priory?”

Adri tapped her fingernails on the glass, and even they chimed. “Blinded by love. Not a hatred of crypters. The fool.”

“All of those people… they don’t
know
?”

“Of course not, and why should they?”

Solindra reeled away from the steam princess. Her hands were suddenly shaking. “Because they don’t know why they’re dying.”

“The truth wouldn’t stop them from dying.” Adri touched her chained hair. “What matters to me is that the longer this war drags on, the worse it will go for the Saturni legacy.”

“Saturni legacy,” Solindra repeated. “What happened?”

“My mother’s cousin was a minor member of the Priory, and my father was cordial with them then. But that wasn’t enough for Helen Saturni, and somehow she stole a copy of their sacred codex. She smuggled it back to Steampower with the help of Parrot. She, however, could not escape the Priory’s underworld.”

“And Steampower went to war to get her back.” The younger woman’s eyes misted.

“Eventually, yes. Now my father will rip out the Priory, branch and root. He’s tried covertly over the years. The only thing that held him back for over twenty years was the threat of her death. Alas, somehow, my father had received word that she passed a couple weeks before his initial assault…”

Solindra wiped her gray eyes. “That’s so sad.”

Adri’s face remained blank. “I have never wanted to destroy the Priory. They know more than we think they do. I did the crypter rites my mother had smuggled despite the perils, and I know in my heart that there is more to be had.”

“But what about me? Where do I belong?”

Adri lighted the room with another smile. “You, my dear, were a product of the research into the Priory’s manuscripts. We used them to build you, a true crypter.”

“What?”

“Vessels are created when a pregnant woman does the Priory’s rites. It had to be done when the child was viable outside the womb, for the mothers rarely survived the process. Neither did the infants we cut out from their guts.”

Solindra stepped away from the steam princess. “No. No. That’s too horrible.”

“But you lived. That is why you are so very important for a Steampower victory. You do want to help me, yes?” She smiled as radiantly as the sun. “Or at least aid all those people on the Killing Trains that you spoke of? All of that is Codic’s doing, not ours, and I need your help to stop it.”

Solindra still retreated a few steps away from her. “You’re a crypter. Why can’t you?”

“My dear, I am not a vessel. I am not as powerful as you can be. Also, people know me, and they can’t know that I am one with the steam.” Adri followed and reached out. She started to intertwine her fingers in Solindra’s flaming hair. “But I do want to know the ghosts’ secrets. I want to know your secrets.”

The vessel inched further away.

Adri advanced. “The Priory just wants you dead. But you’re safe enough from the hunt here.”

“But why are they hunting me?”

“The Priory fears you’ll be stronger. You never had to study. You never had to sell your soul. They consider you to be not even human.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Neither do they. They think this is all just mysticism, even if they know more than we do now. Our current tools of scientific observation are not yet sophisticated enough to show us the ultimate answer. But it does offer a current empirical reality, a world we can measure and attempt to understand. The Priory doesn’t apply such scientific standards to their abilities.”

Distantly, a large bell began to ring. Its sweet notes fluttered like a flying bird.

“Four o’clock,” Adri said. “Let’s go meet the man who started this war.”

***

Serving a pitcher of wine was not what Solindra had imagined when she dreamed of meeting Steampower’s leaders. Of course she was playing the role of Adri’s maid, but she’d never expected to actually be one! Adri, meanwhile, sat with her ankles crossed in a chair with her back to the window, facing away from the long, carved table.

A huge telephone chimed on the corner table, and a well-dressed lackey scrambled to answer it. He held the corded receiver to his ear and then hung his nose over the speaking tube. Next to it sat a typewriter wired into a small electrical box attached to a telegraph.

Solindra tripped over her own heavy skirt while gazing around the room. The wine nearly spilled onto the stupid servant costume. This corset and bustle were ridiculous. The magazines she’d coveted had never mentioned anything about style being uncomfortable.

Men in heavy jackets lined the conference table in the center of the long room. They smoked and sipped their brandies and placed them beside the wine glasses on the table.

She bobbled and staggered for balance to keep in the alcohol in the pitcher when the far doors to the room opened with a crack akin to thunder.

The last true steam baron in Eliponesia, Boras Saturni, entered the room, coattails flying. He pulled off his top hat and half cape and tossed them to the servant trailing him. He ran his fingers over his dark beard.

He slid into his seat at the head of the long table, and then looked up in surprise. “Adri?”

She smiled and smoothed her skirt. “I just wanted to help, Papa.”

“Fine, fine.” Saturni spread out his fingers on the table. “Gentlemen, let’s call this board meeting to order.” Behind him, his assistant rang a glass bell. The men at the table set down their glasses and turned to face the steam baron.

Saturni relaxed back into his seat.

“Now, as you gentleman know, we are not new to this war industry. We’ve built the machines for nigh on eighty years. You know that I was just another compressed steam salesman when I was a boy, so I know how long a long day’s work can be. And, gentleman, we have a long day’s work here if we want to end this venture.”

One of the men in suits put a hand on the table. “I have news that Eliponesia’s overseas colonies are crumbling. Codic won’t get support from them for much longer.” He leaned back with a smile on his face. A round of “hear, hear” and harrumphs circulated the table.

Saturni frowned. “And we won’t get raw supplies from them, either. Alright, send them some money to prop up the friendly forces that way. Can’t stop production.”

His servant took notes. “Yes, Mr. Saturni.”

“People are not very happy with us,” Saturni continued. “We need something to boost their spirits. Those folks outside of Redjakel, I mean.”

“We’re safe enough here, haha,” another man put forth.

“Do they need anything?” someone asked. “Are they low on supplies?”

“They’re low on morale,” Saturni replied sternly. “They’re running in fear and hoarding, which is bad for us in so many ways. We need a resolute war face out there.”

“How about some survival kits?” a man with a cigar suggested. “Tent, canteen, matches, that sort of thing. Put in some informational fliers about how Steampower is helping them.”

“Get them involved.” Adri’s voice was like warm honey flowing in the room. She smiled. “We need to get everyone involved in the war effort in some fashion, even if it’s just embroidering Steampower napkins for the boys in the blimps. People are bound to support the effort if they have to sacrifice for it. Obviously, one cannot be overt in stating such an intention, but get some rallies going, get the word out about how they will help themselves by helping us.”

Silence pervaded the room.

After a moment, Saturni clipped off the end of his cigar and lit it. “You do that, Adri. Get your girls sewing. We’ll continue without you here now. Thank you.”

The steam princess stood up straight. “Why, Papa, I thought I’d spoken another language. I suppose I really don’t look like my mother.”

Saturni’s cigar dipped. He grunted. “It wasn’t a bad idea, darling.”

“But it might be an expensive one,” a chair remarked. “Although we might get some free labor because it’s patriotism. I don’t need to remind anyone that until we win this shindig, we’re losing money, and everything boils down to money.”

“No,” Adri snapped. “Everything boils down to physics and the five elements and every atom that makes them up. Money is just a febrile shared dream of civilization.”

Saturni grinned stiffly at the board through a puff of smoke. “Now, now. Pardon us, gentlemen, the doctor has said that she has developed neurasthenia. It’s so new, the University of Medicines only invented it last year.”

Adri scowled.

Solindra tried to hide a gasp. She’d read about that in a magazine a traveler had left behind a few months ago. It meant that someone of the intellectual class had succumbed to urban stresses.

The steam princess lifted her chin and stalked away from the table.

Solindra knew she should drop her eyes, stare at the floor and quietly follow Adri out of the room. Instead, she glared directly at Saturni. Her hand slipped into her pocket with the sancta. She could do it. If she could touch him, she could boil him alive, from the inside out. Then this war might be over.

Adri tapped her shoulder. She shook her head.

As they turned to leave, Solindra heard Saturni saying, “Codic has got some information it shouldn’t have, and it has been seriously damaging to the war machine and it’s not entry-level bullshit. Surely one of you sirs has been offered a deal by them. I will say now that listening to them will not be profitable to your health.”

Time slowed down. Solindra inhaled for as long as it takes a glacier to move. Shadows seemed to lengthen out from the corners, and a new shadow was rising behind her. Through the window, she heard and felt what seemed to be every thump of the individual blades.

A copper-colored helicopter platform was rising up to the board room behind the window. The things were hard to steer, and dangerous with their two rotating blades driven by a steam engine underneath the platform. There were smaller blades on each side facing outward to help guide the platform, but the controls were just a mess of levers and dials.