Steamscape (14 page)

The wind pushed Solindra’s hair up and over her shoulders, spreading it out like an electric halo. Solindra, Adri and her other servants stepped through the opening glass doors and onto the roof of Steam Central. Solindra gasped, first at the sting of the wind, but then at the metropolitan vista. They looked down at the skyscrapers, the markets, the rooftop gardens and the entire world below.

Adri gestured to the machines on the roof: a wire-frame helicopter powered by a boilerbox, and two other rounder flying machines, each with repeating guns on their arms. Menacing monster teeth had been painted onto their bases. The helicopter pilot and two huge men walked across the roof to each of the machines.

Solindra stared. She’d never seen anything like those two armored helicopters. Titangles, she recognized them from the magazines and she’d heard Jing talking about them. Flying battle machines. They were mostly spherical with a large dome in front so the pilot had excellent lines of sight. But they looked heavy. Chains of bullets had been casually draped over a side of one.

One of the titangle pilots stowed the bullets before climbing into the cockpit. At the same time, the helicopter pilot flipped on the switchpack in order to ignite the fuel that would heat the boilerbox. It must have run on something far more efficient than wood or coal because the fire immediately flared into life and the scent of gunpowder and coal filled the air around them.

Adri smiled. “I make certain that I am often seen flying in this fashion.”

She nodded to the two silent servants behind them. The women curtseyed, and one of them pulled on a blond-white wig. Together, they walked out to the waiting helicopter.

“Oh,” Solindra said. “A decoy. Especially since your father was almost killed.”

“Yes, a pity that.” Adri turned away just as the two escort titangles and helicopter lifted off and flew between the electrum-coated skyscrapers.

The younger woman hovered behind, watching the display as if it were a parade. Soon, the helicopter rose like a ballerina, perfectly spaced in between the two flying titangles. They sauntered into the air as gracefully as hummingbirds.

Solindra let slip a smile and sighed.

“Come, little bird,” Adri called.

She dropped her gaze and stooped to pick up two large haversacks and put one on each shoulder. Then Adri handed Solindra a long, thin but heavy case. She winked. “In due time.”

The steam princess let the roof doors blow shut behind them. She checked her belt pouch for her sancta and a small four-shot pistol. The purse was a narrow, leather pouch with a slot for a woman’s fan and pistol, now the height of fashion in the city.

Adri stepped up to an interior gated door and waited. Solindra, wheezing a little under the weight of both haversacks and the long case, bent her knees to fit through the cage door. The steam princess then floated out onto the elevator platform.

The cage bobbled when Solindra walked further onto it with her luggage and she stopped, holding her breath. She squeezed open one eye and stared down into the black, seemingly bottomless shaft below.

Adri chuckled. “It’s perfectly harmless, unless you’ve been eating too many chocolates.” She let her hand glide over the control levers. “Now please close the door and let’s be on our way.”

Solindra grunted and rammed the cage door home. Adri pulled down a lever and the elevator began to sink.

After a while, there was light from below. Solindra squinted through the slots in the cage’s bottom, trying to see the destination of their controlled plummet.

Adri moved more levers and the elevator slowed its descent. It finally stopped, hanging a foot above the landing.

Solindra stared. Below was a moving chain as wide as her arm.

“This part is a bit of a drop, or so I’ve been informed.” Adri slammed a lever with a red handle home. The overhead cable detached and the entire cage bounced down onto the moving chain. Instantly, the chain caught and began conveying them along.

Solindra pressed her nose through the bars. “What is this place?”

Adri raised her chin and did not look around at their surroundings. She sighed elegantly. “Maintenance and escape tunnels, I believe. A few unofficial labs.” The cage shuddered as it rattled along its new track. “This chain also powers the water pumps up into headquarters’ boilers. There are deep wells here.”

Solindra looked down through the cage’s bottom. Beneath the moving chain she could see the water, the oil in it shining almost like aether bands.

They rode in the semi-darkness for a timeless moment. Solindra couldn’t tell how long had passed in the gloom. She covered her eyes. Ahead, a green lantern was glowing.

Footsteps from ahead broke the stillness. The steam princess reached back and grabbed Solindra’s shoulder. She shook her head.

“I read something about a project down here...”

“Something feels wrong.” Solindra grabbed the bars of the cage as it rumbled forward.

The sound of shattering glass and snapping metal echoed ahead in the darkness and someone cursed explosively. Then even more footsteps sprinted away in the other direction.

Adri pushed Solindra against the cage bars and gripped her cipher medallion. Shimmering like a liquid, a wall a steam out of the oily water below encased their chests and leads in a large cloud.

“Don’t move.” Adri pressed the sancta close to her chest.

“I don’t see anything,” Solindra hissed.

“That’s what I fear.”

Unbridled screaming started from several throats. It rapidly faded to choking sounds, and then the only sound was the cage moving inevitably forward on its chain toward the origin of the unseen terror.

The machines continued to grind and clank in the everlasting gloom.

Solindra turned to Adri, eyes wide. “What–?”

Adri shook her head. She pointed.

The cage passed by several dead men. It was too dark to see their bodies clearly. Solindra leaned closer. One of them was slumped over some sort of metal canister, but she couldn’t make it out. She tried to reach out, to see better, but Adri’s steam bubble made it too foggy to make out any hints.

Adri whispered, “Don’t move. Don’t talk.” The cage kept moving forward on the mechanical pull of the chain.

Eventually, the steam princess brought down her hands and the steam bubble faded. “Go ahead and open the door. I don’t think either of us wish to stay here.”

Solindra breathed in the damp air. “What was that?”

“A waste of breath. Silence.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Solindra dug her shoulder in and wrenched the cage door sideways. She stood there, toes hanging over the edge, hands on the haversacks as she watched the lantern growing larger. It highlighted a small metal platform and a darker hole behind it, suggesting a tunnel.

They jumped. Adri’s shoes barely whispered as they glided down onto the walkway.

“Oof!” Solindra swore under her breath, and her knees seemed to crack like a whip as she stumbled her landing. The two haversacks bounced forward, throwing her entire body off balance, not to mention the long case on her back.

The empty cage clattered on down its track without them, its rattles louder with less weight pressing down onto the platform.

“Come now.” The steam princess marched into the darkness beyond.

Solindra waddled behind, trying to balance herself and run at the same time. She tripped over another still-warm corpse. The boy could have been no older than ten. His face had contorted and he stared at something horrible that was beyond her vision.

“He ran far.” Adri slipped up beside her as silently as a hunting cat. She stepped around the corpse as if it were an inconvenient puddle and onto the roughly hewn stairs beyond the body.

The vessel followed and banged her toes on the second stair. It was too dark!

She stuck out her hands until they bumped into a slick, uneven wall. She tried another stair.

Adri moved like a ghost through the poor light, her footfalls barely making a whisper. She smoothed out her skirt. “Poison gas. Chlorine, mustard, bromine or something else. Even I don’t know much about this. Some sort of mechanical defense against people trying to break into Steam Central.” She frowned. “At least, that’s what I heard. Papa has begun to keep the information to himself since he suspects there is a spy on the board.”

Solindra shivered. How would a machine know friend from foe?

“Come, let us leave this place.”

After a few minutes of cussing and stumbling, Solindra gasped at the sudden sunlight. Adri held open the door for just a moment and then strolled on ahead like she had been walking on the clouds.

She pulled on a dark wig of her own and smiled as she saw the red carpet and silver ropes guiding the crowd to the golden-colored blimp. People here dressed in ornate clothes matching the expensive appearance of the private air-dock. Adri and Solindra breezed through the gentlemen assigned to keep the riff-raff out.

The blimp took up most of the sky as they stared up at it.

Adri pulled on her white gloves. “We must fly, my dear.”

Solindra shook her head. Her feet felt heavy, as if they were growing roots. Her stomach heaved at the thought of sky-sailing. “N-No.”

Adri smiled sadly. “Smith is a determined man, I’m afraid, so we can no longer linger here. Now I’m the only one left who wants to protect you from the beasts.”

“Like the Priory?”

Adri nodded. “Yes, bird.”

She opened her hands. “I know not for certain, Solindra, but I fear that you are not safe here, either. Perhaps Papa’s would-be assassin was only so daring because of rumors that a vessel had been found. Yes, there are stories, and we are not safe in the city.”

Solindra stuck out her chin. “Drina and Jing are still out there. I don’t believe for a moment that Smith was able to stop them.”

“Because Smith is after you, not them.” Adri smiled sadly. “Even if they live, you are not safe. Especially here, despite an army of soldiers between you and he.”

From the corner of her eye, she could see the wire-frame helicopter and its two titangle guards approaching the air-dock.

Adri placed a gloved hand on her shoulder. “But I will protect you.” She didn’t even look up as their entourage sailed overhead.

***

Theo whistled at the wire-frame helicopter and its surrounding titangles. “I ain’t seen that before.” He leaned over the side of Flame’s descending airboat and its rotting hull.

“So close,” Drina murmured gazing at the distant skyscrapers, “but armored walls. Didn’t they say Adri likes that sort of thing?”

Jing kept his gaze level with the Redjakel’s crowded streets. “It’s just as well. We can’t get near her with Smith still in the wild.”

“Now, now.” Drina laid a hand on the mechanic’s arm. “Smith is a bastard, but he is as civilized as the next man.”

Unfortunately, that next man was Flame. He was leaning on a line and whistling to himself. “Er, what?” He grinned and clipped Theo’s shoulder with an open hand. “Redjakel! You’ll never find dirtier whores than here!”

Theo felt the heat across his flushing face. “In front of a lady!” Despite his hatred for the man, all he could think about was a woman’s presence.

That woman cracked her own smile. “No, he’s right, but he’s not talking about the poor girls on the street.” She pointed to the line of skyscrapers.

The largest building Theo had ever seen came into focus. It was golden, or at least its sleek stones and metal looked golden. It wasn’t adorned with reliefs and art like most everything else in the Steamscape. Sheer, sleek, slick…devoid of art so that it became that art itself. Other buildings had giant clockwork displays and showed off their elevators, but not this tower that overshadowed all of them.

Drina sighed and cupped her chin in her hands, resting her elbows on the railing. “Steam Central. Outside hasn’t changed much.”

“Do you think our Cylinder is in there?” Jing wondered aloud.

“We’re going down,” Flame called. “Ghost, lend me your leg here. I need the weight.”

The mechanic nodded and slowly limped over to Flame. His weight creaked over the rotting boards of the hull. “I can’t believe you paid money for this wreck.”

Flame kept up his grin. “Old beaut, little creaky, but I wouldn’t trade her for the world – seen me through so much.”

Theo looked down at the city below through a hole in the hull.

Their landing was smooth. They docked down in a central hub for trains, carriages and airboats. Dozens of elegant dirigibles and hundreds of smaller airboats crowded the docks.

Sheer busyness on a scale that Theo would have never imagined infused the world around him. He felt a laugh gurgling up from his belly. How could he have thought he could cause trouble here? This was nothing like Consequences or Valhasse.

Their hull scraped against the dock’s ship-catch, causing some splintering sounds from below.

Theo took one large step toward the railing and
crunch
! His leg slipped through the rotting wood and stuck out through the hull.

Flame grabbed his stomach and laughed, slapping the railing. “She knows what I like! She knows what I like!” He leaned forward and kissed his control console.