Steamscape Read online

  Several people hurled open the double wooden doors at its base to reveal the metal framework, supporting the bulb of the boiler itself.

  “No fire,” Drina said as calmly as if she were looking at a broken wagon wheel. She stuck a hand through the door, ignoring the mob. “But there is heat.”

  Theo squinted, trying to see the boiler in the darkness of the tower. “How can we get in there?”

  Jing shook his head. “Those things are built to stand up against fire and time itself. We can’t drill in there before the water boils.” He waved his hand toward what felt like an invisible fire.

  A descending silence surrounded them. Everyone had turned to them as the heat continued to rise all around them. Theo immediately began to scan for hidden cables. Smith had to be controlling this through some trickery.

  He shoved the mechanic’s back. “You’re Ghost, right? Do something.”

  Jing forced his muscles to remain taut and not shake his head. “This is a crypter’s work.”

  “What?” Theo blinked.

  “It’s not like I can outsmart the ghosts with mechanics! Besides, the ghosts aren’t real, it’s all just dissolved aether.”

  “But you are Ghost.”

  “Kid, that was just a pool-hall name to make us seem larger than life. That’s all.”

  Theo’s mouth hung agape. “Folks pray to you!”

  Jing pulled the bricoleur aside. “Well, I’ve never heard any prayers, except maybe very personal ones along the lines of ‘please don’t kill me’ and those never ended well, not when we were in the service.”

  “But you’re not in the service now!”

  “I hadn’t noticed, kid.” He reached out and put a hand on the metal of the tower. He could feel the vibrations of the panicking children and the heat cascading down the line. “Never did a favor like this before in my life.”

  “You raised an orphan,” Theo snapped.

  “Because Silvermark said to.”

  Drina gritted her teeth. “If we’re not doing anything else now, we should at least be getting ready to steal a boat.”

  Jing still stared up into the tower. There was no fire to quench, no drill fast enough to get through that bowl. He imagined young Cylinder in there. He remembered raising her and imagined finding her in that tank.

  What would he do? Crypters used steam, and steam meant water.

  “Death, I need my tools.”

  “Death?” Theo echoed.

  “Right-o,” Drina called. “They’ll be whatever we can nab.”

  The mechanic nodded, kneeling down and opening up the compartments in his leg housing. He snapped his head up to the crowd. “There’s a hatch on top, isn’t there?”

  One man twisted his hat between his hands. “Yes, sir.”

  “Well, get some men up there and start digging those children out!”

  “There won’t be enough time,” Theo murmured as several townsfolk, men and women, ran to the far side of the tower, presumably to a ladder.

  Drina returned, carrying several spanners and a large wrench. “What’ve we got, Ghost?”

  Jing snatched the wrench from her arms and marched as quickly as his metal leg would carry him to the waterwheel. “Simple enough!” He heaved himself up and out onto a thin, wooden walkway. “Standard river pump. Wheel turns, collects water and pumps it up into the boiler.” He wedged the wrench in between the sluice and the turning wheel. “Displacement, no suction. The water just has to move up into the boiler because of the weight of water behind it after it passes through a one-way valve.”

  “Break that valve, should all spill out.” A flash of a smile crossed Drina’s face.

  “Right.” He heard the scrabbling from the top of the boiler and shouts from the hatch. He yanked the sluice partway down and jammed the butt of the wrench into the valve, shattering the cast metal. He slammed the wrench home again and the cheap valve flew apart, sending pieces flying up past his face.

  Nothing happened. No water trickled.

  A young girl screamed from inside the tower, her voice muted and tinny to their vantage.

  He brushed aside the flakes of metal and poked his fingers inside. They ran right into the freezing wall. Jing bent down and brought one eye level with the pipe.

  The water was frozen inside the pipe. “What the hell?”

  Above, the girl screamed again.

  He looked down at Drina and shook his head. “He’s using the aether to pull the heat up to the bowl. It’s freezing down here at the bottom because he’s pulling all the heat upward.”

  “Freezing?” Drina echoed.

  “But the ghosts are only alive in the steam – in the heat,” Theo protested.

  “Perhaps not to a crypter.” Jing frowned.

  “So what do we do?” The bricoleur glanced over his shoulder at the crowd. Too many were still just standing and watching. “I think we’re out of time.”

  “The hell I am.” Jing hefted the wrench and slammed his metal leg down off the walkway, back onto the ground. “No machine has ever beaten me before. And no crypter occultism either.”

  He limped around the walls of the tower to the open doors. “Right,” he grunted and walked underneath the bulb of the boiler. “Drina, Theo, help up top.” He didn’t turn around. Instead, he started to climb with his wrench in hand.

  ***

  Drina shoved her way through the mob at the base of the tower. She didn’t even bother with the overcrowded ladder, and instead dug her fingers directly in between the stones of the tower and started to climb. Her movements were slim, efficient and infinitely practiced.

  Theo raised his eyebrows in surprise and then started to climb as well, wedging in his boots and thrusting up with his legs. Beside him, a screaming young boy fell, splattering Theo’s cheek with warm water. The bricoleur turned his head to see him caught by several other people below.

  Theo caught up with Drina at the edge of the open hatch. Steam was already starting to curl off the water’s surface. At least ten remaining pale and horror-scarred faces were waiting inside. Once he’d processed their faces, his ears allowed him to hear their screams. A couple of the smallest ones were just floating in the water, being too short to stand.

  He reached across the open hatch, next to a bearded man from the town, and yanked his hand back from the waves of heat from inside the boiler tower.

  “Move back!” The Death Spinner elbowed her way past the man. She threw down a thin, gossamer cord with a weight at the end. “Grab on!”

  Many small hands seized at it, scrambling with all their fury.

  “We’re out of time!” Theo screamed.

  ***

  Jing jammed the wrench into the arm-thick pipe that fed the tower. He could see the frost on it below where it curved into the sluice outside. Up here, it was sweltering. He lodged both feet into the spidery framework of metal holding up the boiler itself.

  Muscles bulging, he started to heave the wrench to the side. He counted his breaths and kept on pulling.

  With a jerk, the pipe shuddered in its place. The metal squealed and turned almost a quarter of an inch. Bolts popped along the wall.

  Jing kept applying the pressure and turning the wrench to the side. The pipe continued its slow twist, like an old ballerina.

  Beneath the wrench, the metal started to glow a dark orange, as if the ghosts were attacking the new bend in the pipe. Jing didn’t stop to wonder why. His entire world was consumed by the tug of the pipe.

  The tube was now twisted halfway around itself. The heating made it even more pliable and easier to twist than he’d hoped. On the other hand, it made it harder to break.

  Droplets sizzled as they flew from the pipe, landing on his forearms and face. He didn’t even feel them; his entire world was bending this pipe.

  His chest, back, neck and even his leg contracted together with his arms. His entire body felt like one single muscle. He heaved on the wrench.

  The pipe snapped. Steaming water gushed free
.

  Jing leaned back out of its path as far as he could. Blisters and red burns were already growing on his hands and forearms. He eased his way down the network of supports and beams and back to the floor, pausing briefly to wipe the sweat and water from his face with his arm.

  His muscles twanged and sagged. He hadn’t moved like that in years. He glanced back up to the pipe, twisted purely enough with a neat snap in it, like a child’s toy. Chalk that up to another legacy of the Hex. He couldn’t help but smirk – they were back in the saddle.

  He pushed his way back outside. The people were crowding around soaking, sobbing smaller people. He fought against a smile at the reunions.

  Drina was leaning on the edge of the tower, all but ignored in the rescue of the children. Theo was behind her, pale but standing up straight.

  She shook her head slightly as he approached. “Some of the littlest ones had drowned long before. The rest… many of them will be scarred.”

  “But they’re alive.”

  She swung around to fall into step with him. Theo dumbly started to follow, just swallowing. They stepped through the townsfolk, who were too focused on checking and crying over their children.

  “And now we vanish.” Jing swung away, ducking around the corner of a building.

  “Are you with us?” Drina turned to follow, but looked back at Theo. “Or this is goodbye? None of us owe each other anyway.”

  Theo glanced back over at the townsmen. But the Hex had just gone, disappeared like the steam, even though he knew they were just around the corner of the building. Of course he knew that.

  He curled his fists. “You owe me Flame.” He kicked up dirt as he ran after them.

  “Well, well, he decided to come,” Drina drawled. She tossed out a couple coins into Jing’s waiting palm.

  “Thank you,” the mechanic quipped.

  Theo fell into step alongside them. “I am not going to be cowed by you, Hex or not.” He stuck up his chin, trying to hide his trembling as the weight of knowledge finally caught up with him. “So now what?”

  “Get back to our last orders: Solindra.” Jing didn’t glance down at him.

  “Orders?” Theo scowled. “Whose orders?”

  “Silvermark’s, before he died.”

  “And that’s it?” Theo sneered.

  “Of course,” Drina scoffed. “I know I’ve killed some loudmouths outside of orders before.”

  “Death,” Jing warned. “We’re here for Solindra.”

  “Right,” she said. “But we don’t even know which side Flame works for now.”

  “But he took her alive,” the mechanic mused. “So she’s got to be out there somewhere, and probably not by the same people who are bossing Smith around.”

  “In Redjakel then?” Drina guessed.

  The mechanic shrugged. “Possibly.”

  Drina sighed. “It’s the best lead we’ve got.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “Without the fire, Solindra,”

  “Yes, Miss Adri.” The vessel scowled at the full bowl of water in front of her. Her eyes flickered to the servant woman carting away the steaming bowl. This new ceramic bowl that had been left glistened blue through the clear water, but the liquid was tepid. Solindra tightened her brow in concentration.

  “It’s pointless, Miss Adri.” She pushed the bowl away with her free hand and fingered her cipher medallion in the other. “I know the ghosts are there in fog and water, but they’re only alive in the steam. It can’t be done on a bowl of cold water.”

  Adri shook her head and the golden chains in her hair tinkled together like tiny bells. “The aether is merely the medium through which energy can be transferred. That’s all we do, transfer of energy.” She held out her own purple sancta above the bowl. “You don’t need fire. People have quite a lot of water in their bodies too. It’s something to remember if you’re ever in danger.”

  Solindra was only half listening. She watched as tiny bubbles began to form and then rise underneath Adri’s sancta. Soon, the bowl was bubbling along happily, and fresh steam curled off the water’s boiling surface.

  The steam princess pulled her cipher medallion away from the table. The boiling immediately faded. “You do it, little bird.”

  The young woman frowned again and held up her sancta. After a moment of nothing, she dropped her hands. She suddenly pointed to the window. “Do you think we can do this lesson outside?”

  She sighed while staring at the world beyond the glass. In this high room, she could see enough of the city. Redjakel’s Light District had not been touched by the war. Boiler towers and electrum-coated skyscrapers reached up toward the clouds. Steam-ships drifted regally above them.

  Down below, steam-coaches and horse carriages danced around golden fountains in the avenues. Women in the most brightly colored dresses strolled down the streets with their bustles and parasols, showing not a care in the world.

  Adri slipped up behind the vessel. “Remember, none of this would be possible if not for the aether in the steam. Our technology would fail.”

  Solindra pressed her hands and nose against the glass. “I’ve always wanted to see the cities like this! This is nothing like Valhasse. This has plazas with fountains and restaurants and–”

  “You can’t, Solindra.”

  The girl’s face seemed to melt.

  “You can’t be found out. You’re too precious. You know how the common folk distrust crypters, especially after the assassination of President Falklind.”

  Solindra sagged. “That’s just a story. It was never proven.”

  “You know your factual history. Good.” Adri stepped up to the window and also put her hand on the glass. “But the truth is often pliable. People chose to believe the story, so it’s more true to them than whatever actually happened. And so every last crypter was hunted.”

  “I know, but…”

  “People hated us long before that. It was just an excuse for what they already believed. And yet, the Priory are the ones holding up Codic. I surmise they’re fine with the general fear of crypters as it keeps their competition down.”

  “This is a whole war against crypters, isn’t it? Is that the truth? Steampower is attacking crypters.” Solindra pulled her hands away from the window and watched her breath fade from its polish. “This whole war is just so your father could go after the Priory?”

  Adri tapped her fingernails on the glass, and even they chimed. “Blinded by love. Not a hatred of crypters. The fool.”

  “All of those people… they don’t know?”

  “Of course not, and why should they?”

  Solindra reeled away from the steam princess. Her hands were suddenly shaking. “Because they don’t know why they’re dying.”

  “The truth wouldn’t stop them from dying.” Adri touched her chained hair. “What matters to me is that the longer this war drags on, the worse it will go for the Saturni legacy.”

  “Saturni legacy,” Solindra repeated. “What happened?”

  “My mother’s cousin was a minor member of the Priory, and my father was cordial with them then. But that wasn’t enough for Helen Saturni, and somehow she stole a copy of their sacred codex. She smuggled it back to Steampower with the help of Parrot. She, however, could not escape the Priory’s underworld.”

  “And Steampower went to war to get her back.” The younger woman’s eyes misted.

  “Eventually, yes. Now my father will rip out the Priory, branch and root. He’s tried covertly over the years. The only thing that held him back for over twenty years was the threat of her death. Alas, somehow, my father had received word that she passed a couple weeks before his initial assault…”

  Solindra wiped her gray eyes. “That’s so sad.”

  Adri’s face remained blank. “I have never wanted to destroy the Priory. They know more than we think they do. I did the crypter rites my mother had smuggled despite the perils, and I know in my heart that there is more to be had.”

  “But wh
at about me? Where do I belong?”

  Adri lighted the room with another smile. “You, my dear, were a product of the research into the Priory’s manuscripts. We used them to build you, a true crypter.”

  “What?”

  “Vessels are created when a pregnant woman does the Priory’s rites. It had to be done when the child was viable outside the womb, for the mothers rarely survived the process. Neither did the infants we cut out from their guts.”

  Solindra stepped away from the steam princess. “No. No. That’s too horrible.”

  “But you lived. That is why you are so very important for a Steampower victory. You do want to help me, yes?” She smiled as radiantly as the sun. “Or at least aid all those people on the Killing Trains that you spoke of? All of that is Codic’s doing, not ours, and I need your help to stop it.”

  Solindra still retreated a few steps away from her. “You’re a crypter. Why can’t you?”

  “My dear, I am not a vessel. I am not as powerful as you can be. Also, people know me, and they can’t know that I am one with the steam.” Adri followed and reached out. She started to intertwine her fingers in Solindra’s flaming hair. “But I do want to know the ghosts’ secrets. I want to know your secrets.”

  The vessel inched further away.

  Adri advanced. “The Priory just wants you dead. But you’re safe enough from the hunt here.”

  “But why are they hunting me?”

  “The Priory fears you’ll be stronger. You never had to study. You never had to sell your soul. They consider you to be not even human.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Neither do they. They think this is all just mysticism, even if they know more than we do now. Our current tools of scientific observation are not yet sophisticated enough to show us the ultimate answer. But it does offer a current empirical reality, a world we can measure and attempt to understand. The Priory doesn’t apply such scientific standards to their abilities.”

  Distantly, a large bell began to ring. Its sweet notes fluttered like a flying bird.