Steemjammer: The Deeper Truth (21 page)

“I knew you’d come,” Deet managed to say.

***

Having put together a makeshift stretcher from wooden poles and a blanket, Will and Alfonz carried Deetricus Steemjammer out of the cave. Giselle had given him a few sips of water and a little sugar, but Alfonz had warned her against too much at once.

“Not too fast being,” he said. “We bringing him back, one sip at a time.”

“Your English,” Marteenus grumbled, “is the worst I’ve ever heard in my life. You’ve had eleven years to improve it, and if anything you’ve gotten worse!”

They scowled at him, but he grinned. When Alfonz had lowered him, still tied at his ankles and wrists, to the ground by a rope, he’d been worried. When he saw that Deet was still living, however, everything had changed. Now it was time to tell them the news.

“All right, then,” he said merrily. “I upheld my end. Time to untie me and let me fly off in my airship.”

“Where’d you get that crazy idea?” Will snarled.

“Oh, I’m afraid it’s no mere ‘idea.’ It’s grim reality, young Steemjammer. You made a promise on your name. Just like you can’t lie, you can’t break it. I used to be that way, and I suppose part of me still is. But I know what’s going on inside you. You will obey the promise you made as if you’d chained yourself to it.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Giselle said. “You’ll stay here.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Let’s gag him,” Alfonz said.

Marteenus sneered. “Will, you promised that if Deet was alive that I would be set free, unharmed, and – this is the important part – with a chance to survive and get away. You can’t leave me here. If you do, you break the promise, because this place is unsurvivable without that airship.

“So, like it or not, it’s your fate to remain here, while I fly away and perhaps sneak up upon Beverkenhaas in the night. I think I know how the machine works, and I will get back to B’verlt – perhaps with your little sister as a present for Zander.”

Ignoring him, Will and Alfonz put Deetricus in a makeshift rope harness to hoist him up into the airship’s gondola.

“Amusing, but you’re wasting time,” Marteenus said. “You’re bound by your words. If you don’t give me the airship, you’re breaking them.”

Will spun with an angry scowl on his face. “Wrong!”

“What?”

“You gambled, Marteenus, but you lost.”

“You promised!”

“To leave you alive and with a chance to survive.”

He dropped a canteen to the ground.

“That’s a few days worth of water,” he continued. “You can climb down the cliff and reach help, if you’re careful. Maybe you won’t slip and break your neck.”

“That’s no chance at all. It’s impossible!”

“Liar. It is possible. I only promised you a chance, not a good one. That’s more than you deserve, murderer.”

They locked eyes, and Marteenus realized the boy wasn’t budging. A panicked whimper escaped his lips, and he backed away in fright.

In moments, Will and Alfonz got Deet safely hoisted up into the airship’s gondola. Giselle gave him another sip of sugar-water and covered him with a wool blanket. Marteenus stared up, hoping that somehow the certainty of his death would occur to them and force them to obey the promise they’d made.

“You can’t!” he screamed as Will and Alfonz went up the rope ladder. “Please. At least untie me.”

Ignoring him, they kept climbing.

“This is no chance,” Marteenus argued. “No chance at all. I’ll starve or die of thirst!”

Will and Alfonz climbed into the gondola.

“Why, look at you,” the short man cried. “You’re nothing but a bunch of thieves!”

When no answer came from above, Marteenus’ eyes filled with mad desperation.

“This is more than a lie,” he whined. “You’re breaking an oath. It will ruin you.”

“No, I’m keeping an oath,” Will called down, “though I’m sure I’ll regret it. I hope I never see you again.”

While Marteenus pleaded with them not to leave him, Alfonz started the engine, which drowned out his words. They untied from the tree and soared away into the sky, never looking back.

***

That night, Angelica couldn’t sleep. Finally back in her old home, Beverkenhaas, she was surprised to see what a mess had been made of the place. Tante Klazee had urged her to bed, assuring her that everything would be all right, but she’d snuck out on the top of the tower to look around.

Thinking she heard a clattering steam engine above, her heart raced. A dangling rope came down from the dark sky, snagging some of the stonework. She ran to tighten it.

“Let me get it,” a familiar voice said.

Suspended in mid-air was her brother – except he was actually hanging onto a rope ladder that dangled from the airship in the darkness above.

“Will!” she cried excitedly.

Soon the airship was tied off, and they lowered Onkel Deetricus to the tower. Angelica thought he looked thin and pale, but he opened his eyes and managed a smile.

“Little Angelica,” he said, reaching up to put his big hand on hers. “So goot to see you.”

While Will and Alfonz got him onto a stretcher, Giselle climbed down and joined her father.

“We got one of them,” Angelica said.

“We’ll find your parents,” Giselle comforted her.

“Will,” Deet said, “what was that noise again – the one before your vader disappeared?”

“Dad, you need to rest,” Giselle chided.

“I will, I will. Just tell me, first.”

“Thump, thump, thump, snap,” Will said. “Any idea what it means?”

Deetricus made a face and glanced away. “Maybe. I’m not sure, but there’s a clue in that. Enough to start - tomorrow.”

“Tell us more, Onkel Deet,” Angelica asked. “I want to start, now.”

“Patience, little one. They say on this verlt that twins share a special connection, and there must be some truth to that. I’ve seen my brother in dreams, and I know he’s still alive.

“But he’s far, far away and in a very strange place. More than that, I can’t say. We should rest, and tomorrow, if I’m not well enough to search, I’ll give you enough to get started.”

He hugged his niece.

“Have faith, little one,” he said. “We’ll find them. Lekker shlaapees.” Sweet sleeps.

After carrying Deet down to his parents’ bedroom, Giselle and Alfonz stayed with him. Will and Angelica decided they should go to sleep, too, but they had to check Beverkenhaas, first, to make sure all lamps were out and the boiler was safe. They stopped at the place where they last saw their father, heading downstairs with a lantern.

“Do you think we’ll find them?” Angelica asked.

“Yes,” Will replied. “I’m sure of it.”

At first, he wondered if he was being truthful. After discovering how to lie at Texel, he realized he could do it whenever he wanted, and so he had to be careful. It still didn’t feel right, but the major inhibition was gone. That was dangerous, he realized, because he feared the wrong kind of lie might actually cause harm.

Thinking about the lump of Tracium in his pocket and all they’d gone through, he realized he hadn’t lied to make her happy. He did believe they’d find their missing parents, though it might take a great deal of inspiration and work. Looking at her, he remembered how happy she’d been on seeing him return from Texel and what an important role she’d played at the end.

“I’m glad you’re so good with that sling,” Will said, beaming a proud smile at her. “We wouldn’t be here if you weren’t. You must have really goot steem.”

“Thanks,” she said, blushing from the compliment. “Then you must have ultra-wankenzink goot steem. I’m glad you didn’t lose it, even if I don’t understand why.”

“I don’t, either.”

“Really?”

Instead of automatically saying yes, he realized she expected more from him.

“Maybe,” he said, “not understanding is the whole point. Mom and Dad knew the rules they taught us wouldn’t fit all situations, but seeing deeper truth would get us through. Somehow it did.”

A chill breeze hit them, and while shutting a window that had been left open, Angelica had a thought.

“So, you’re basically saying,” she said, trying to keep a straight face, “that there’s ‘no such thing as cold,’ even though I just got a shiver.”

Too tired to laugh, Will grinned. “Yeah. That pretty much sums it up.”

She could barely keep her eyes open. Blowing out the candles, Will walked her to her room. He worried that he might not get any sleep that night because of all the new thoughts swirling through his mind. It felt wonderful, however, to be home and back in his comfortable old bed. As he pulled up his covers, relaxation took over. He fell into a deep, restful sleep and didn’t stir until well after dawn.

DE EINDE (THE END)

Glossary