Everland (5 page)

Doubtful, I eye him warily. “You’re kidding. How can a bunch of children help get Joanna back?”

He beams. “I guess you’re just going to have to trust me.”

“Trust
you
? You must be mad. How do I know you’re being truthful about the Lost City? For all I know this is a trick and you’re aligned with the Marauders. You could take us straight to Hook. And even if you’re not one of those horrid pirates, two less people in the city to fight over supplies would only benefit you, isn’t that right?” I say, brushing Mikey behind me.

Pete crosses his arms. “If I were in with Hook or wanted less competition, I would’ve made sure Hook’s men found you in that abandoned home, and Mikey would be fending for himself.”

Mikey peeks around me, frowns, and grips my hand tighter.

Bella sighs. “While I would like to see you left behind, I don’t want to wait around here any longer.” She reaches into her leather satchel and holds out a clenched fist. Her tiny gloved fingers open slowly. Gold powder shimmers in morning rays of sunlight like fairy dust. Speechless, I look at Bella and back at Pete.

“It looks like gold,” Mikey says, running a finger through the sparkling powder. “Did you find a pirate’s treasure chest?”

“Sort of. You’ve heard of the Bank of England, right?” Bella asks.

Mikey nods.

“Well, this is only a bit of the thousands of gold bars beneath the building. Cogs says the gold is too soft to make anything practical. He ground the gold bars into powder for me so when I scavenge, I dust the path ahead of me to decide how far I have to jump. All I need is a bit of moon or lamplight to reflect off it.” Bella pulls the lever on the straps of the rocket pack and her wings eject, sputtering to life. From far away, I didn’t realize how truly remarkable they were, but up close I’m awestruck by their beauty. Her wings are made of copper piping intricately designed with sweeping loops, brightly polished cogs, and a stunning mechanical clock. A thin film covers the mechanisms in each wing, and as the early morning light hits it, the coating shimmers in a show of bright colors.

“Who’s Cogs?” Mikey asks.

“He’s a Tinker, a boffin of sorts. Our chief engineer, to be exact,” Pete says. “Cogs is a smart chap who fiddled in robotics and electronics before the war. He’s in charge of operations in the Lost City.”

Shouts erupt in the distance. The familiar squeal of gears grinding against one another from the Marauder’s Steam Crawlers echoes through the labyrinth of buildings. Pete stands taller in the window, searching the streets. His forehead wrinkles. “It’s time to go,” he says, adjusting the straps of his pack over his shoulders.

“I don’t know,” I reply, hesitant as I turn toward Mikey. He stares at me with an anxious expression and pulls his teddy into his chest, fiddling with the single button eye. “How can I trust you?” I ask Pete.

“What more is left here for you but faith?” Pete says, extending a hand to me from the open window. The sunlight halos him an amber glow.

“And a little bit of pixie dust,” Bella adds, pouring the rest of the gold into my hand.

The shouts from the street grow louder. I swallow the lump of fear in my throat, torn between taking my brother and running for safety on our own or joining Pete and Bella. Mikey tugs at my hand and waves a finger at me, gesturing for me to come closer. I bend toward him.

“Can’t we go with them, Gwen?” he whispers. “They have all of our food anyway.”

He has a point. If I reject their offer, they’ll leave with our supplies and we will have nothing but what is in my pack. If we go with them and the Lost City is real, Mikey will have a safe place to stay while I rescue our sister.

I turn back to Pete and Bella, who both stand in the window, silhouetted in the sun’s early glow. Bella’s glittering wings flutter. “Pete, they’re getting close!”

“So, are you coming?” Pete says, leaning toward me.

I peek through the window. Shadows creep between the warehouses. The metal clang of military vehicles crawling along the broken streets echoes through the maze of buildings. Steam rises between the buildings and the vehicles let out an ominous hiss.

Bella’s eyes flash with worry. “Pete? We have to go!” she urges, waving my brother toward the window. I lift Mikey, and Bella helps him through the opening. As I reach for Pete’s outstretched hand, I hesitate.

“Wait. What was the second rule to surviving?” I ask.

Pete smiles, his perfect white teeth flashing with confidence. He places his goggles back over his brilliant green eyes, and I see my worried reflection stare back at me in the lenses. He pulls me into the window frame with both hands, drawing me close enough that I can feel his breath against my cheeks.

“Rule number two: I am always right.”

S
meeth’s breath crackles in a wet wheeze as he struggles to keep up. As if the fires, ash, and dust in Everland weren’t bad enough, the cigars he insists on inhaling have only made his asthma worse. But I say nothing. Maybe he’ll kill himself before I have to do the dirty deed myself.

“But, Captain, you were scheduled to return to the Bloodred Queen six months ago with a progress report. Why are we still chasing orphans? We’ve gained nothing from them.”

“Those orphans, or rather one orphan in particular, are vital to my plan,” I say, marching through the ornate palace hallway to the front entrance, stopping at a window.

Smeeth wrings his hands. “They were never part of the objective. Your mother will have all of our heads if we don’t return to Lohr Castle soon.”

Outside, the shadowed rubble renews my resolve. There is only one thing left to do in Everland before we leave. Just one.

“Mother will have my head anyway, along with my lungs, liver, and anything else she desires. We were supposed to claim England as ours, to establish our own governorship over the country. What good is our report now? We have single-handedly destroyed the heart of England and in turn released a deadly virus. If we leave now, what news do we have to bring her? That we took over London, renamed it Everland, and that the city is only a fraction of the metropolis it once was? She already knows what I’ve done. If the report from Germany is true, if the Bloodred Queen has contracted the virus, too, then this disease has spread well beyond England’s borders. Not only that, but I’ve failed her … twice.”

My fingers bite into the windowsill, the pain calming the humiliation brewing within me. “I have to find the cure. I will not return to Lohr Castle without it.”

“You’ve done what the Bloodred Queen has asked,” Smeeth says. “You’ve conquered England. Let us give her the report she’s asked for and leave with the money, travel the world away from this dump. Queen Katherina can deal with coming back and cleaning up the mess herself.”

“It won’t be enough,” I say.

“What do you mean it won’t be enough? England is defeated and two billion as payment is hardly something to scoff at.”

Spinning, I lunge toward Smeeth, towering over him until I am close enough that I can smell the wretched stink from his last cigar. “And what if the rest of the world looks like this? Aside from the single report on the Queen’s condition, no one outside of England has made contact since the attack. Not even by telegraph or carrier pigeon. England’s allies would never let this go unpunished unless … unless the virus spread. That’s the only reasonable explanation for the silence from them, from the world, really. We know that the Horologia virus has drifted beyond England’s borders, but how far?”

“I don’t know, Captain,” Smeeth says, taking a few steps back. “But I still think you ought to take the money and run.”

I reach inside the pocket of my black leather military coat. I pull out a fiver along with a book of matches, then set the bill on fire. It bursts into a vibrant flame and then extinguishes, leaving a dusting of ashes on the floor. “If the virus has spread and left the world’s leading countries immobilized, this note is nothing more than a measly piece of paper. What is the money worth now? Nothing!”

“Then we’ll ask for payment in precious metals and gems,” Smeeth says.

As I gaze at what remains of the once-magnificent palace, my eyes fall upon the torn tapestries hanging from the faded walls, remnants from the day when I claimed it as my headquarters. “No, we are on the brink of having something worth more than rocks and crystals. Something the world leaders will sacrifice anything for to save the citizens they have left. A service—a gift, really—that even my mother can’t provide her people. A prize that will award me the respect I’m long overdue.”

“What’s that?” Smeeth says, furrowing his brow.

“The cure.”

I spin on my heels and head toward the palace doors. “Sound the signal. I want those Crawlers and zeppelins ready to go in five.”

“Yes, Captain.” Smeeth salutes and hurries from the palace.

Within minutes the alarm’s shrill cry breaks the silence of the misty early morning. Armed men scatter like ants retreating from a stomped-on anthill. They form perfect lines, each a mirror image of the other. Their only form of identification is their names clumsily scratched into the metal of their full helmets. Fools. They think etching their name on their helmet so no other soldier accidentally wears it will keep them from contracting the virus. They’ll all be as good as dead if I don’t succeed.

Dozens of Steam Crawlers fill the palace courtyard, an army of spiderlike machines. Brigades of masked soldiers file in formation as they flank the armored vehicles. I stand at the entrance of Buckingham Palace. Towering over the army of men, I scan the mass, my heart beating wildly beneath my coat. The sight of the soldiers, their dark uniforms adorned with bits of metal that reflect an orange glow from the dawn sunlight, stirs a flicker within me, like a candle chasing away the darkness of despair.

“Marauders, this is our time, the moment we have waited for. We came to London to seize it, to establish Everland for the Bloodred Queen. And today is a new step toward real power, absolute supremacy. Our treasure is not gold, but the crowns from each of the world’s leaders.”

My voice is swept away by the soldiers’ cheer. Their shouts feed the flame in my gut, fueling my confidence. I clutch an empty glass vial and hold it high for the soldiers to see.

“This is all we need. The blood of the Immune will send the strongest leaders of the world to their knees, even the Bloodred Queen herself. The Immune lies here within Everland. Find the girls. Find them all! Find the female whose veins pulse with the antidote to the Horologia virus.”

Again the Marauders roar with solidarity, their deep voices almost mechanical beneath their helmets. Gunshots ring through the chilly morning air.

“Find Pete! He knows where they’re hiding. Search every street, building, rubbish bin, crack, hole, crevice, rooftop, and basement. She’s out there. Bring me the cure!”

The army thunders in approval. With clenched fists pumping, they burst into chants. “Hook! Hook! Hook!”

I ball my fists, cringing at the nickname they have given me. “It’s Captain Kretschmer,” I mutter through gritted teeth.

“I’d go with it, Captain,” Smeeth says. “It has a nice ring to it. Don’t you think?”

My eyes skim the Marauders, taking in the rows of men cheering for me. For me! Not my mother, the Queen of Germany. They’re not shouting out the surname that I was unfortunate to have been born with. No. Not Captain Kretschmer.

Hook!

Tucking the vial into the pocket of my coat, I feel the tug of a smile pull at my lips. “Perhaps you’re right, Smeeth. It’s a new beginning, not just for me, but for all of us.” I spin the gold ring adorned with the seal of the Bloodred Queen on my finger. “A new era.”

Slipping the ring from my finger, I hold it for the soldiers to see. “Long live the Bloodred Queen!” I shout. I toss the ring into the air, and with my pistol, I shoot the band of gold. It fragments into two pieces before clinking on the brick ground. The last link of choking resentment slips from the heavy chain wrapped tightly around my neck.

The soldiers chant my name, feeding the embers of determination deep inside of me. I reach inside my pocket, pull out another ring, and slip it on my gloved finger. With a balled fist, I hold it up for my army to see. The gold skull and crossbones shimmer in the sunlight.

“We will rule the world!” I shout.

The Marauders roar as they climb into their vehicles. I rush down the steps and slide into my Steam Crawler. With a hiss of the boiler, the military vehicle rumbles to life. The tank howls as its mechanical legs creep forward into the broken city.