Steemjammer: Through the Verltgaat (7 page)

Chapter
7

Beverkenverlt

“Will!” Angelica cried. “Don’t!”

“Please,” he said firmly. “Normally, you’d be right, but nothing’s normal anymore, is it?”

He unfolded the letter and read the spidery handwriting aloud. “‘My Dear Cousin, how many years has it been since that unfortunate incident which left us both stranded on this miserable world? Eleven? You may hate me more than I despise you, but for the moment let us put emotion aside and consider the practical.’”

“What a creep,” Giselle muttered.

“‘You have something I want,’” Will continued, nodding in agreement with her, “‘passage home, but have you considered that I may have something you need? I can imagine your face as you read this, your scowl of contempt, but humor me.

“‘By now you must realize how utterly futile it is to keep resisting the Rasmussens. After these many years, you’re still here. What do you think your enemy’s been doing all this time?

“‘They’ve been dissecting your machinery and records, such that you left them, piecing together your precious secrets. How much longer until they master them, and then what?

“‘They’ve won, Hendrelmus. There will be no place you can hide. Your existence will be that of a hunted rat. Every morning you wake will be to face the pain of your disaster, as befits the name you carry: Steem-failure.’”

“
Failure
?” Angelica interrupted. “What’s he talking about?”

“I don’t know,” Will admitted.

Giselle made a face. “Well, this has bugged me for a long time, but ….”

“What?”

“In Dutch, ‘jammer’ means, well, a ‘pity’ or ‘disappointment’. Or a ‘failure’.”

“Impossible!” Angelica said. “We’re really good at steam, so how could we be steam-failures?”

“It must have another meaning. Let him finish.”

“‘Here is my offer, cousin,’” Will read. “‘I have considerable influence with Zander Rasmussen. If you send me back, I will convince him to spare your wife and children. For you, I can only ask that he give a clean and merciful death.’”

Too angered to go on, he stopped. Giselle took the letter.

“‘Since your obvious response will be to scoff,’” she read, “‘I extend my offer to this: send me back, and I’ll reveal the location of Deetricus, whom you will notice has disappeared. I have him locked up, far away and in a place you’ll never find.’”

She paused, shocked, and glanced at Will.

“You were right,” she said. “He must have snuck up on Dad from behind, like he did with us. He probably put a rope around him and hauled him away with the airship. If only I’d looked up, I would have seen it.”

“I knew I should have clobbered him,” Will said, taking the letter back and reading. “‘When you realize you have no choice but to agree to my terms, fly a large white banner off the tower of your current domicile. I’ll be watching from afar, and don’t take too long. I’m not inclined to feed your brother.

“‘Awaiting Your Response, Marteenus S. Skelthorpe.’”

A grim mood fell on them. It seemed like all emotion had drained away from Giselle’s face, and Angelica put a small hand on her back.

“I’m all right,” Giselle said, fighting back tears. “At least he’s alive. He didn’t drown.”

“But Marteenus thinks my dad will make some deal with him,” Angelica said. “He doesn’t realize that he’s gone.”

Giselle turned to Will. “Can you make any sense of this?”

“It’s like some sort of war,” he said. “Now we know why Dad taught us how to fight.”

“Why would anyone hate us so much?” Angelica asked. “If Marteenus is our cousin, how could he be so evil?”

“I don’t know,” Giselle said, making a decision, “but Will’s right. We have to go on searching Beverkenhaas.”

Will glanced down at his sister. She closed her eyes and made a small nod, adding: “But where?”

He had no idea but wasn’t about to let on, so he led them back to the hidden room and said “Here!” He stomped his foot confidently on the wooden floor.

To his surprise, he heard a hollow-sounding thump.

***

After a quick search Giselle found a knothole in the floor that depressed, opening a second trap door in the hidden room. Instead of a pit, this one revealed brick steps going down into inky darkness. Turning up the lantern, Will slowly descended, but Angelica hesitated.

“Dad said it was dangerous, remember?” she said.

“You don’t have to come,” Will said, continuing down.

“We won’t be long,” Giselle added, overcoming her fear and following him.

“Wait,” Angelica said. “You know that powered armor in the barn? Why don’t you put it on, first?”

Will sighed. “That rusty old thing? It hasn’t worked in years, and I don’t know how to steam it up. We’ll be fine.”

As Angelica watched them descend, she began to get anxious about being left alone. Steeling her nerves, she put a hand on the railing and went down as fast as she dared, soon catching up.

The stairs had taken them down over two stories in depth, where an open doorway led to a dark, cavernous room that seemed to drink up their weak lantern light.

“There’s a basement under the basement!” Angelica said.

The Steemjammer kids stared in awe. In the dim light they could make out a high ceiling, strong brick columns and heavy wood beams. Large machines filled the room.

Angelica nodded at the closest one. “What’s that?”

A series of stacked wooden cases took up a great deal of space. They were packed with rods, gears and rocker bars. A network of steam pipes snaked throughout it, and a bronze flywheel stood at either end.

“I know,” Will said, eyes twinkling. “That’s a Variable Engine!”

Giselle blinked. “A what?”

“A Variable Engine. It’s like that thing your friend has – what was it called?”

“You mean,” Angelica said uncertainly, “that’s a steam-powered
computer
?”

“Like we’d have an electric one? I once heard Dad talking about it with Uncle Deet, and now I know what they meant. That,” he nodded at a series of large wheels and gears against the opposite wall, “I have no clue.”

Eyes opening wide, Angelica gasped. “Are those real?”

In the poor lantern light a workbench seemed to come alive with dazzling sparkles. She ran over and found it strewn with a pile of diamonds. Even uncut, they shimmered brilliantly. One was bigger than a quail egg, but it wasn’t the gems that had captured her attention.

Next to them sat three small black rocks. Angelica examined them briefly before putting them back.

“Yep,” she said. “More meteorites. I guess Dad never got around to putting them in a display case.”

Across the room, Giselle stared with curiosity. “What’s that?”

They went over to a large wooden table that held a three dimensional map. It had mountain ranges, some with high, sharp peaks painted white to signify snow. Blue lines indicating rivers ran here and there, flowing down into large lakes or an ocean to the west. Green blotches – forests - dotted the landscape.

Several miniature walled towns piqued their interest. The largest were labeled: “New Amsterdam,” “New London,” “Little Dusseldorf,” “l’Espoir,” and “Wee Edinburgh.” Roads and railroads connected them. They saw tunnels, canals, large bridges and strange things they couldn’t completely figure out, like “De Achteroot Maalstrom,”
The Backwards Vortex
, and shaded places marked with skulls. A large, jumbled zone with jagged peaks and gaping chasms was called “De Tandweel Slagvelt,”
The Cogwheel Battleground
.

Finding themselves drawn to the map table, they imagined what various features looked like. They could almost see a steam-powered train chugging across a bay on a long stone causeway - almost smell the hay in green fields and hear the wind howling in the mountains. Will and Giselle had a strong sensation of déjà vu.

“No way!” she said as she guessed what this meant.

Will grinned. “Yes!”

“Is this …” Angelica started, too overwhelmed to finish her sentence immediately. “Is this our
home
?”

“‘Beverkenverlt,’” Will said, reading a silver-inlaid legend. “It’s a map of Beverkenverlt.”

“‘World of Works,’” Giselle translated, the word confirmed by a foggy, dreamlike memory. “Of course.”

“Or Tinker World!” Angelica said brightly, her eyes opened wide with wonder. “Look, Will! Snowy mountains, like you were saying! This is all so wankenzink!” This time she meant
crazy
in a good way.

A sudden hiss of steam nearby made her shriek with fright! They laughed as they realized it was only a relief valve, like the ones upstairs.

Spotting something, Will moved on. “Over here.”

In the back corner sat a big machine that resembled a pipe organ crossed with a slowly spinning merry-go-round, except there were no painted horses. Three steam pipes came down from the boiler, which was above them in the regular basement. The machine had a number of patches and looked like someone had taken great effort to repair or even rebuild it. Turning, occasionally hissing out vapor, this contraption had been left on.

“I thought we were using more water than we should,” Will mused, intrigued. “He left it idling.”

“I bet he was working on this when he vanished,” his sister added.

An old control panel caught Will’s eye. Covered with dials and cryptic, faded, hand-painted letters, a rather large and obvious lever seemed to call out to him. He put his hand on it but hesitated.

“Are you sure?” Giselle asked.

“No,” he admitted.

“It might blow up,” Angelica squeaked.

“Then get back.”

Giving them a chance to hide behind a heavy brick column, he braced himself and shoved the lever forward.

CLICK! HISS! A surge of steam flowed into the machine, and the carousel spun faster and faster. The girls peered nervously from around the column.

“What’s it doing?” Giselle had to shout to be heard over the noise.

“Look!” he called.

In the air a potato-sized lump of spinning gray metal appeared, hovering with no visible means of support. Unable to resist, Will reached towards it.

“Don’t!” Angelica cried.

His fingers went right through it.

“It isn’t there,” he said, mystified.

His sister backed away in fright. “That’s not possible.”

“Will, what’s going on?” Giselle asked.

“I don’t know,” he admitted, “but when I pushed the lever, for some reason – well, this isn’t going to make sense, but I thought of it.”

“A floating chunk of metal that isn’t there? You
thought of it
?”

“I told you it wouldn’t make sense.”

“Think of where our parents are, then.”

“It’s not something I control. It just happened.”

Angelica stifled a scream. “Look!”

A large, shimmering white circle appeared in the air, about twelve feet in diameter and reaching from floor to ceiling. Suddenly scared, Will ran around behind the column with the girls.

“We should have brought crossbows!” he said.

Little Angelica pulled her sling from her pocket and loaded a rock. Will drew a dagger from his belt, and Giselle grabbed a broom that leaned against the wall. They stared, mesmerized, as the giant circle turned various colors, settling on a deep purple that seemed to have depth and go for on forever.

Suddenly the circle went clear, and they found themselves staring into another place! Overcoming his fear, Will walked over and peered through.

“I know what that is!” Giselle said, eyes wide open. “I remember the word from long ago. That’s a
verltgaat
!”

“A what?” Angelica asked.

“A world hole,” Will translated, peering through and realizing he was staring into the inside of an old, rusty boiler.

Hands shaking, Giselle handed him the broom. He poked it through the hole and was just able to tap the boiler’s metal wall. They could barely hear it. Seen from the side, the broom handle seemed to disappear as it entered the shimmering hole in the air.

“That’s how Dad vanished!” Angelica said, amazed.

Pulling back the broom, Will found it was undamaged. Bravely he reached through with his left hand, starting with an outstretched pinky finger.

“It tingles,” he said and reached in past his wrist. “Part of me’s in another world!”

He pulled his hand back and flexed it. He was fine.

“Here I go,” he said.

“Wait!” Giselle urged. “We should think about this.”

He stepped through. Briefly his image shimmered, and the girls could see him on the other side, looking around.