The Earl of Brass (The Ingenious Mechanical Devices Book 1) (22 page)

Lying in a heap of hay was Kae. Her eyes were shut and her lips lax. The woman was even whiter than she had been underground, but across her cheek and eye was an inky bruise. Her hands were bound, and a piece of fabric was wrapped around her mouth as a gag. Hadley held her breath as she reached into the box and grasped Kae’s wrist. Under her opalescent nails were clumps of clotted blood, but her pulse palpated past the Englishwoman’s fingertips. She raised the dancer’s body out of the crate as she freed her limbs and lips but laid her back down when the pale woman began to stir.

“Eilian, I found her!” she called as his shadow passed the door. “She’s alive but out cold.”

“Thank heavens. Should we wait until she wakes up to bring her back?”

Hadley stopped fanning the woman’s face as she looked from Kae to the coffin. “Eilian, they are going to come back to get her.”

The Parrot and the Tiger

Eilian ran through the camp, gathering dark clothing or cloth to protect Kae’s delicate, colorless skin from blistering in the desert sun. Once she was completely shrouded, they lowered her body onto a collapsed tent. As they grabbed either end of the makeshift stretcher, the clattering of hooves and wheels echoed through the still desert air. Hadley poked her head out and spotted a hairy, hulking figure charging down the hill on horseback with a carted-mule at his side.

“Edmund’s coming! What should we do?”

“I will go out and meet him. You stay here and try to move her to our tent while I stall.”

“Be careful,” she whispered as her companion slipped out the side of the tent to make it appear as if he had come from Joshua’s instead.

Eilian took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to run as the massive man barreled toward him. A twinge of anger crossed the hunter’s face before disappearing behind a mask of nonchalance as he tied the animals to the post near the edge of the campsite. Lord Sorrell swallowed hard as Edmund stood in front of him expectantly with his hands on his hips, flaring his broad chest.

“Edmund, what’s going on? When I got up, everyone was gone. What’s the meaning of this? Where did Joshua go?”

He furrowed his black brows and pushed past the pestering nobleman. “Joshua took the men up to Beersheba to buy some more supplies and ship the artifacts back to England. I have only come back because he forgot a box. We would have woken you, but you two were sleeping so soundly.”

The tent Hadley and Kae were in fluttered as Edmund drew near, and Eilian blurted, “Why did you take the girl?”

Mr. Barrister paused mid-stride and swung around, towering over him. “What did you say?”

“Why did you take Kae? You already stole our notebooks, the silkworms, and their books. Why did you need to take her too? You need to let her go.” His conviction rose over the fear that knotted in his stomach. “She’s a person, not an artifact. You can’t just take her out of her world and away from her family. Kae isn’t some animal at the zoo, she is a person. She has a wife down there who cares about her.”

A wicked smile spread across his face, narrowing and enlivening his eyes, as Eilian tensed upon seeing Hadley drag Kae across the aisle to their tent behind Edmund’s back. “Of course, I should have expected you to sympathize with the toms in the
unnatural
relationship.”

He stared up with his brows knit in confusion. “I don’t know what you are talking about. I care because she’s a human being who deserves to be treated as such.”

“Lord Sorrell,” he began condescendingly with his arms crossed, “I hope you don’t think that I don’t know about your twisted tendencies. I know you’re having an affair with the boy. You noblemen think you can get away with anything. I have seen all along how you look at each other, and just this morning when I was rifling through your desk, I found you two sleeping quite intimately together. In some countries, like this one, that is punishable by death, and you don’t want your little popinjay to die, do you?”

Eilian’s body locked at the implication.

“I didn’t think so, but if you decide to not pursue this matter any further, I will keep my knowledge of this little tryst a secret.”

Before the Lord Sorrell could utter a word, Edmund turned his attention to Eilian’s tent as something crashed off the desk inside. As he rushed in, an inhuman howl of pain erupted from his mouth as he stumbled back. A pen jutted from his thigh, but with gritted teeth, he ripped it out and threw it to the side before charging at Hadley’s trembling form. She tried to duck out of the way, but his massive paw struck the side of her face, knocking her into the corner of the table. Edmund pushed Hadley’s limp body off Kae’s as he threw her up onto his shoulder like a bag. Before he could stand, Eilian shoved him from behind, causing him to stagger and drop her back to the floor. He gave the hunter one solid kick in the back before retreating from the tent.

The predator was on his heels as he ran toward the open area of the camp away from the two women. Within seconds, Mr. Barrister’s hand closed around Lord Sorrell’s shoulder and pulled him to the ground. They tumbled, and Eilian threw his arms in front of his face as the larger man pummeled him. The force of the punches reverberated through the metal of his prosthesis, but when he got the opportunity, he swung at his opponent with his left arm. Eilian finally landed a blow squarely on Edmund’s nose, causing him to let up his assault for a moment. Edmund covered his face as his eyes watered, feeling the nobleman hit him several times in the chest. Suddenly the punches slowed as Lord Sorrell seemed lost in a daze and stared toward the tents. Taking advantage of his inattention, the hunter slammed his fist into the side of Eilian’s face, instantly purpling his eye.

***

Hadley blinked, seeing stars as she picked herself off the unforgiving, dusty ground with trembling legs. Her head pulsed rhythmically as she used the desk as a crutch and climbed over Kae without tripping on her splayed limbs. Somehow she still couldn’t believe he hit her. She had expected the pen’s metal tip to at least give him some pause, but he had retaliated so fast she didn’t even have time to react. The thudding impact of fists hitting flesh roused her from her haze, and she clambered out of the tent as quickly as her wobbly legs would carry her. In the middle of the row of half-collapsed tents, Eilian and Edmund rolled through the sand in a ball of flailing arms and khaki. Her chest tightened with panic and rage as she watched the massive man land blow after blow on Eilian’s face and ribs as the younger man struggled to wriggle out from under him. When Eilian tried to escape, the man with tiger eyes grabbed his neck and began to squeeze. Her companion gasped and writhed but couldn’t peel his fingers away. With unsteady hands, she reached into her corset and pulled out her derringer. The heat from her own body radiated from her gun as she walked behind Edmund and clicked the hammer back.

“Get off of him,” she growled, “or I will shoot.”

He roughly released Eilian’s throat and stood up, revealing Eilian’s bloodied lips and nose. His eyes roamed from the snub-nosed gun to the trembling boy’s knit brows and snarled pink lips. “A garter gun? You’re going to shoot
me
with a garter gun?”

“You heard me. I said, I will shoot. Leave now, and no one will get hurt.”

“You’re even less of a man than I thought,” he yelled as he lunged to grab her arm.

“That’s because I’m not one!” Hadley roared as she emptied two rounds into his chest, the deafening retorts echoing through the canyons.

Edmund stared at her in disbelief as his hand traveled to his chest, touching the blood as it seeped through his jacket and trickled between his fingers. He lurched forward as she stepped out of reach. Muscle by muscle his body lost control until he staggered and collapsed at her feet. She couldn’t breathe. She had killed a man. As Eilian crawled onto his knees and spat a mouthful of blood onto the sand, she pushed the terrifying reality from her mind and helped him to his feet. Lord Sorrell stared into her eyes as his chest heaved with each ragged breath. Blood was smeared from his hair to his chin, and beneath it, the skin of his cheek was already swelling and turning a mottled violet. Hadley wiped the blood and grit from his face with her handkerchief and held the cloth beneath his gushing nose. With probing fingers, she checked for breaks around his eyes and nose but found only bruises that made him wince and pull away. Before she could speak, he clasped her to his chest and held her close, his trembling breaths rustling her bangs.

“I’m so glad you are all right. I was so afraid he had hurt you,” he whispered as he held her head to his cheek before kissing it. “He could have killed us both.”

When she finally met his gaze, her eyes were filled with tears. “What am I going to do? I— I killed a man. I’m going to go to prison. I know I will.”

Eilian rubbed her back and held her tightly as her body shook with silent sobs. “No, you killed him in self-defense. You did it to save my life and Kae’s life. There is no reason you would go to prison, but we will figure out what to do after we get Kae back to Billawra.”

Hadley averted her eyes from the fallen man as Eilian steered her down the row of canvas tents. As they slipped into their chamber, Kae’s wide, blue eyes and bruised face met theirs. “Where am I? Where’s Uta?” she asked tremulously as she sat on Hadley’s cot.

“You’re in our campsite, but we’re going to bring you back to Billawra,” Eilian explained as he knelt beside her. “Kae, is there another way to get in and out of the city from the surface?”

She nodded slowly. “We have three caves.”

Pain radiated through his cheeks as he paused to run his tongue across his teeth to confirm they were intact. “When we bring you back, I need you to tell the others to stay far away from the entrance. We have to seal it to keep the others from returning and coming after your people. Hadley, can you walk her back to the cave? I will meet you there.”

Hadley quickly wrapped the dancer in her dressing gown and a sheet before leading her through the campsite. Taking a long swig from his canteen, Eilian spit the red residue onto the sand. He looked up in his shaving mirror and frowned. His face was as bruised as it was after the airship crash with purple welts already rising on his cheeks and around his eyes. With a sigh, he stared at his bruising neck. If he closed his eyes, he could still feel Edmund’s hands squeezing the air from his throat. At every movement, his ribs ached, and as he ran his fingers across them, he felt a sharp dip in the bone near his back. Rotating his arm, he found that his prosthesis had come out of the fight unscathed with only a pea-sized dent in its palm.

After checking his body one more time for injuries, he ambled down to the supply tent to see how he could dispose of Mr. Barrister. Eilian dug through the crates until finally he came to the box labeled with
dangerous
in twelve languages. He drew out several sticks of dynamite and a long wick before going out to untie the tethered mule. Staring down at Edmund’s deflated and leaking body, he confirmed with a nudge of his boot that the man was dead. The hole in his chest was barely visible, yet something smaller than a button had been enough to bring down the big game hunter. Using his good arm and what little remained of his strength, Lord Sorrell hefted the carcass onto the cart despite his ribs screaming for him to stop. A pool of blood remained on the sand, but with a few kicks, the last bits of carnage disappeared beneath the desert. With a sigh, he followed beside the mule as it wound its way down the hills until it reached the cavern where Uta and Kae stood in each other’s arms.

“Thank you,” she smiled as she held her wife’s head close to her heart and twisted her fingers through her curled, ivory hair.

“Uta, tell everyone to stay away from the entrance. The only way we can keep Joshua and his men from returning is to close this cave.”

“I understand. Take care of yourselves. Hadley, when you get home, talk to your brother.”

“I will.”

With a final farewell, Uta and Kae disappeared into the darkness of the cave. Eilian backed the cart up to the cavern and dragged Edmund’s body through the sand. The dull thump echoed through the tunnel as he pulled him away from the entrance and into the depths of the plateau. Lord Sorrell strategically placed the sticks of dynamite, connecting them with the wick before running it out of the tunnel.

“Will this really work?” Hadley asked as the fuse sparked to life at Eilian’s match.

“I should hope so, but now is the time to run, not question,” Eilian replied as he pushed her away from the cave.

He gave the mule a sharp kick, sending it back toward camp as he and Hadley sprinted behind a rocky outcropping. The ground quaked as the dynamite exploded, folding in the mouth of the cave and concealing Edmund Barrister’s shattered body between its stony teeth. In one resounding blow, the entrance to their utopia was sealed to them.

Once again they were outsiders, irrevocably exiled from their brief glimpse of happiness. The balance had been upset, but the Billawrati were safe. With one final look, Eilian confirmed the body could not be seen and the entrance could not be traversed. All that was left to do was go back to camp and get ready to leave.

“London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the empire are irresistibly drained.”

-Sir Arthur Conan Doyle