The Impossible Cube: A Novel of the Clockwork Empire (31 page)

“I’m sorry,” Gavin admitted. “I know you’re angry. But is anger worth my life, or the lives of these children?”

“Madam. Madam. Madam.”

Glenda was moving toward her lost rifle. Simon twisted a lever, and the red barrel glowed scarlet. Alice froze, the whistle at her mouth, as Simon fired. The energy beam shot past Gavin and hit Glenda’s rifle. It leaped away, a molten mass. Glenda swore and jumped back.

“You traitorous bastard!” Phipps leaped to her feet, dark hair wild. Feng staggered upright, still trying to attack but not possessing the coordination. “I’ll see you court-martialed, d’Arco!”

The door at the top of the balcony burst open, and clockworker Cossacks boiled into the room. Ivana was at the forefront. She waved a sword that would have looked ridiculous with her pink tea gown if the vibrating blade hadn’t sheared a marble bust in half as she passed. The other Gontas bore similar weapons, including a number of projectile arms.

“Shit,” said Simon and Gavin together.

Alice blew the whistle. It shrilled high and loud, like a baby chick crying for its mother. There was a small moment of silence when everyone in the giant room paused, as if startled that Alice would do something so ridiculous. Alice stood in the middle of the frozen chaos. The children huddled together, frightened and without a protector. Feng staggered about, still trying to obey orders and attack Phipps, but betrayed by his battered body. Kemp’s head droned sorrowfully to itself. Gavin and Simon remained side by side, dark and light, newly become brothers. Even the Gontas and Zalizniaks paused momentarily in their charge.

And then an angry trumpeting answered the whistle. A faint rumble grew stronger, and the front doors smashed open. They wrenched off their hinges, and Alice ducked as one door flew over her head and crashed at the foot the stairs just as Ivana and two of her siblings arrived there. Ivana’s dying scream was buried under six inches of solid oak. The mechanical elephant stampeded over the remains of the automaton army, trumpeted again, and came to a halt near Alice. It made a formidable wall of brass between her and Phipps.

“Get aboard!” Alice barked. “Feng, get the children on the elephant!”

But Gavin and Simon were now halfway across the room from Alice and the mechanical animal. Gavin snatched up the paradox generator and the two of them ran for the elephant, but one of the Gontas on the staircase lobbed a small device that landed in the space between Gavin and the elephant. It exploded with a
strange
pop
that only rocked Alice but knocked both Gavin and Simon sprawling. Gavin slid backward across the smooth floor, away from the elephant and toward the staircase. Alice shouted his name.

Gavin managed to regain his feet. By a miracle, he hadn’t lost his hold on the paradox generator. Simon, meanwhile, flew in a different direction entirely and fetched up against one of the walls. He pulled himself upright, rifle in hand. The Cossacks laughed and tried to clamber over the wreckage at the foot of the stairs. One of them gave it up and turned to aim a large, multibarreled rifle in the elephant’s general direction.

“Go, Alice!” Gavin shouted. “Take the kids and go!”

“No!” Alice cried, horrified at the idea. “I can’t leave you!” But the space between them was wide, and the Gontas were already aiming a number of other weapons. The air would turn deadly in seconds. The children were climbing up the elephant and into the brass gondola, using handholds welded onto its hide for just this purpose. Feng urged them along, but they were slow, and there was no way to get them all in before the Gontas started their barrage.

Gavin held up the paradox generator and grabbed the crank. Of course! The Cossacks couldn’t resist it. All he had to do was freeze them in place long enough for—

Alice’s eye fell upon Gavin’s ear protectors lying on the floor some distance away. The bomb had flung them from their place around his neck. Her stomach clenched with terror. In that moment, she knew what he intended to do.

“Gavin, don’t!” she screamed. “You can’t!”

I love you always,
he mouthed and gave her that heart-stopping grin. Then he turned the crank. The unearthly sound of the tritone paradox sighed through the room. Most of the Gontas and Zalizniaks, those who hadn’t been crushed by the door, froze. A look of pure bliss descended on their faces. Their weapons thudded to the stairs. Gavin mirrored their expression. His handsome features passed into an ecstasy only he could understand as he mindlessly cranked the handle, transporting himself and his fellow clockworkers into rapture. Alice hated the filthy sound, and tears streamed down her face. She couldn’t reach him, he couldn’t reach her, and he would play until he dropped from exhaustion or a Cossack killed him.

And just as Alice feared, three Gontas had had the foresight to throw together ear protectors of their own, and they shoved past their entranced brethren. Two aimed rifles straight at Gavin.

“No, you don’t!” Simon fired his own weapon. Red energy spat from the tip and shattered part of the stone banister. The Gontas ducked. Alice cried out.

“Gavin’s bought us time!” Simon shouted at her, still firing. “Don’t waste it! Glenda, stay where you are. Alice, get those children aboard!”

At that moment, Phipps dashed around the elephant. She had taken advantage of the confusion to retrieve her rifle, and she aimed it at Alice, but Alice made an infuriated gesture, and the elephant swung its trunk round and slapped Phipps aside like a fly. Phipps went tail-over-teakettle and landed hard. The rifle arced away, far out of reach.

“Leave, Susan!” Alice shouted above the noise of
the rifle fire and the paradox generator. “I don’t have time for your pettiness. If you want justice later, run now.”

Simon continued to fire. His expert marksmanship kept the three Cossack clockworkers pinned down, but Alice wondered how long the rifle’s energy would last. The moment Simon stopped his attack, the Cossacks would turn their fire on Gavin, and Alice had no way to save him. Gavin played his perfect tritones, forever beyond her reach. In moments, he would be dead. Alice felt sick and helpless as the final two children climbed aboard the elephant.

“Come on, Lieutenant!” Glenda cried near the gaping front doors.

Phipps looked torn for a moment. Then she dashed outside. Glenda went after her.

Simon fired another volley at the Gontas, but the rifle’s power was already weaker. “Go!” he shouted. “We’re out of time!”

Alice gestured, and the elephant curled its trunk so Alice could step aboard it. “I won’t leave without Gavin!”

“Madam. Madam. Madam.”

“There’s no choice!” Simon said. “You have to let him go.”

Ice washed through Alice’s veins at those words. “I… I…”

“Let him go!”

At that moment, Simon’s rifle ran out of power. The room fell silent except for the ghostly sighs of the tritone paradox. The protected Cossacks, who were hiding behind the stone banister, raised their heads above
the rail. Their own rifles came up. Something inside Alice snapped. The world went into a blur, and she was only half aware of what she was doing. A scream tore itself from her throat, and the elephant thundered forward with Feng and the children clinging to the gondola on its back. And then the mechanical beast was standing between Gavin and the Gontas. Rifle fire, some of it energy, some of it projectile, pinged and hissed off the elephant’s brass hide. Alice leaped down, yanked the generator out of Gavin’s hands, and slapped him sharply across the face. Weapons fire continued to pock and snarl on the other side of the elephant.

“Wha—?” Gavin said.

“Move!” she shouted.

He moved. In seconds, he was in the gondola. Alice hurled herself back onto the elephant’s trunk and ordered the beast to turn and run. It obeyed with a lurch as the Cossacks continued to fire, though the elephant still provided protection as it picked up speed. The smell of scorched brass filled the room and a chunk of metal peeled off the mechanical’s side, exposing mesh and gears like muscle and bone. Machinery squealed as if it were in actual pain. The other Cossacks remained in their trance, but that wouldn’t last long. Above Alice, children cried and screamed. The elephant was limping badly, and Alice could hear the pistons labor. More than one was bent or misaligned, though it was still able to speed along faster than a man could run. Alice clung grimly to its trunk, praying it wouldn’t break down. Simon ran lightly along the wall, heading for the door as well, but the Cossacks were concentrating their fire on
the elephant instead of him. He arrived at the door and bent down to scoop up Kemp’s head just as the elephant reached him. With a quick move, he tossed the head up to Gavin in the gondola, then grabbed a handhold as the elephant thundered past and swung himself up.

“Madam. Madam. Madam.”

The elephant bolted onto the portico outside and down the front steps to the deserted courtyard. The banquet tables, still bearing the remains of the feast, stood between the elephant and the gate, which by a miracle stood open, no doubt from when the rest of the circus left. The elephant smashed the tables to flinders and charged into the street. The rifle fire died away.

A number of emotions tried to push their way into Alice’s head and heart—fear, relief, pride, anger—but she forced herself to stay focused on the task at hand. Reach safe distance from the Gontas. Guide the elephant safely through the street. Bring the children back to the circus. Would the Gontas pursue? Alice had no idea. Right now, she had to get back to the circus, where there was help.

“Alice!” Gavin called from above. “Alice!”

His voice brought back the wave of sentiment. She ignored it, and him. Now that he was safe, she needed to deal with practical matters. Once they were back at the circus, they could talk. The elephant ran.

“Madam. Madam. Madam.”

“Alice!” Gavin shouted again.

The journey was its own version of hell. Alice was terrified the Gontas were following, and she didn’t dare slow down, but neither did she want to trample
anyone, and the dirty, narrow streets were difficult to navigate. Thank God she knew where she was going. People and traffic leaped out of the elephant’s way, some meekly, others with angry shouts. The elephant’s feet thudded unevenly on the cobblestones. Alice turned it one way, then another, always heading for the Dnepro River and the circus. The circus became a goal unto itself, a haven she had to reach at all costs.

The elephant slowed, lurching more and more. A loud hissing started in one of the little boilers inside its chest. But Alice could see the Tilt between the buildings.

“Madam. Madam. Madam.”

And then they were there. The circus was in something of a mess. People dashed in a number of directions, working and shouting and unhitching horses from wagons. Animals bellowed and screeched in their cages. And then Alice remembered that they had been rudely dismissed from the Gonta-Zalizniak house and must have only just returned.

“Alice!” Gavin called again. “God, Alice. Get up here!”

This time Alice listened. She quickly climbed up to the gondola, cursing the difficulty of doing so in a skirt. Simon helped her in. Feng stood in one corner of the gondola, his scarred face impassive, Kemp’s head at his feet. Nine of the children lay or sat on the floor, some of them crying softly, most of them numb. Gavin knelt, cradling the tenth, the little girl in the ragged gray dress. It was the girl Alice had first cured. Gavin’s jaw was trembling, and then Alice saw that the front of the girl’s dress was stained with blood. All the strength
went out of her and she dropped to the floor of the gondola beside the child.

“No,” she whispered. “No, no, no. Is she—?”

“Dead,” Simon said. “Rifle fire hit her when you went back.”

Guilt and horror crushed Alice to the gondola floor. Tears welled in her eyes and her throat closed. She took the little body from Simon and cradled it. The little girl’s body lay in her arms like a warm rag doll. Her mouth lolled open. Alice wept. This child would never see her parents or play house or bite a slice of bread or kiss a boy or breathe spring air. All her hopes and memories had vanished like fog in sunlight, as if they had never existed. A month ago, when she had eaten breakfast with her family, she’d had no idea that one day her corpse would lay in the arms of a stranger on the back of a mechanical monster. And it was Alice’s doing. Alice wished desperately that she could change places with her, but God was never so kind.

Gavin touched her shoulder and Alice wanted to bury herself in his arms, but she wouldn’t let herself. What solace did this girl have? Her family?

“You couldn’t let go,” Simon said in a flat voice. “She died because you went back for Gavin.”

“Madam. Madam. Madam.”

“Simon,” Gavin said dangerously, “be—”

The words landed on her like stones. “No. He’s right. I’m so sorry. She died because of me.”

“You’re not being fair to yourself, Alice,” Gavin told her quietly. “The Cossacks gave her the clockwork plague, and if you hadn’t stepped in—”

“I don’t want to talk about this right now.” Alice
wiped her eyes. “Damn it. There’s too much to do. We need to take care of the other children and we need to destroy that generator.”

“Alice—,” Gavin began.

“Not now, Gavin.” She got up, still holding the girl’s body. The other children stared, both fearful and uncertain. “Feng, get the children down to the ground, please. Simon, help him.”

When the surviving children were safe on the ground, Alice climbed down herself, the girl’s body slung over her shoulder. She refused to let Gavin take it down for her. Blood smeared Alice’s blouse. Disorder continued to simmer through the circus and a curious crowd had gathered to watch, though as before they stayed outside the marked boundaries. Just as Alice reached the ground, Dodd trotted up to them, his collar undone and his hat askew. He was so agitated, he didn’t even notice Simon and Feng.

“What the hell did you do?” he demanded. “Jesus and God and Mary. Everything was fine until you got involved.”

“What do you mean?” Gavin asked.

“Ivana threw us out, and without paying me the rest of what she promised,” Dodd growled. “And what the bloody hell happened to the elephant? What happened to you?”