Steamscape Read online

  “Four o’clock,” Adri said. “Let’s go meet the man who started this war.”

  ***

  Serving a pitcher of wine was not what Solindra had imagined when she dreamed of meeting Steampower’s leaders. Of course she was playing the role of Adri’s maid, but she’d never expected to actually be one! Adri, meanwhile, sat with her ankles crossed in a chair with her back to the window, facing away from the long, carved table.

  A huge telephone chimed on the corner table, and a well-dressed lackey scrambled to answer it. He held the corded receiver to his ear and then hung his nose over the speaking tube. Next to it sat a typewriter wired into a small electrical box attached to a telegraph.

  Solindra tripped over her own heavy skirt while gazing around the room. The wine nearly spilled onto the stupid servant costume. This corset and bustle were ridiculous. The magazines she’d coveted had never mentioned anything about style being uncomfortable.

  Men in heavy jackets lined the conference table in the center of the long room. They smoked and sipped their brandies and placed them beside the wine glasses on the table.

  She bobbled and staggered for balance to keep in the alcohol in the pitcher when the far doors to the room opened with a crack akin to thunder.

  The last true steam baron in Eliponesia, Boras Saturni, entered the room, coattails flying. He pulled off his top hat and half cape and tossed them to the servant trailing him. He ran his fingers over his dark beard.

  He slid into his seat at the head of the long table, and then looked up in surprise. “Adri?”

  She smiled and smoothed her skirt. “I just wanted to help, Papa.”

  “Fine, fine.” Saturni spread out his fingers on the table. “Gentlemen, let’s call this board meeting to order.” Behind him, his assistant rang a glass bell. The men at the table set down their glasses and turned to face the steam baron.

  Saturni relaxed back into his seat.

  “Now, as you gentleman know, we are not new to this war industry. We’ve built the machines for nigh on eighty years. You know that I was just another compressed steam salesman when I was a boy, so I know how long a long day’s work can be. And, gentleman, we have a long day’s work here if we want to end this venture.”

  One of the men in suits put a hand on the table. “I have news that Eliponesia’s overseas colonies are crumbling. Codic won’t get support from them for much longer.” He leaned back with a smile on his face. A round of “hear, hear” and harrumphs circulated the table.

  Saturni frowned. “And we won’t get raw supplies from them, either. Alright, send them some money to prop up the friendly forces that way. Can’t stop production.”

  His servant took notes. “Yes, Mr. Saturni.”

  “People are not very happy with us,” Saturni continued. “We need something to boost their spirits. Those folks outside of Redjakel, I mean.”

  “We’re safe enough here, haha,” another man put forth.

  “Do they need anything?” someone asked. “Are they low on supplies?”

  “They’re low on morale,” Saturni replied sternly. “They’re running in fear and hoarding, which is bad for us in so many ways. We need a resolute war face out there.”

  “How about some survival kits?” a man with a cigar suggested. “Tent, canteen, matches, that sort of thing. Put in some informational fliers about how Steampower is helping them.”

  “Get them involved.” Adri’s voice was like warm honey flowing in the room. She smiled. “We need to get everyone involved in the war effort in some fashion, even if it’s just embroidering Steampower napkins for the boys in the blimps. People are bound to support the effort if they have to sacrifice for it. Obviously, one cannot be overt in stating such an intention, but get some rallies going, get the word out about how they will help themselves by helping us.”

  Silence pervaded the room.

  After a moment, Saturni clipped off the end of his cigar and lit it. “You do that, Adri. Get your girls sewing. We’ll continue without you here now. Thank you.”

  The steam princess stood up straight. “Why, Papa, I thought I’d spoken another language. I suppose I really don’t look like my mother.”

  Saturni’s cigar dipped. He grunted. “It wasn’t a bad idea, darling.”

  “But it might be an expensive one,” a chair remarked. “Although we might get some free labor because it’s patriotism. I don’t need to remind anyone that until we win this shindig, we’re losing money, and everything boils down to money.”

  “No,” Adri snapped. “Everything boils down to physics and the five elements and every atom that makes them up. Money is just a febrile shared dream of civilization.”

  Saturni grinned stiffly at the board through a puff of smoke. “Now, now. Pardon us, gentlemen, the doctor has said that she has developed neurasthenia. It’s so new, the University of Medicines only invented it last year.”

  Adri scowled.

  Solindra tried to hide a gasp. She’d read about that in a magazine a traveler had left behind a few months ago. It meant that someone of the intellectual class had succumbed to urban stresses.

  The steam princess lifted her chin and stalked away from the table.

  Solindra knew she should drop her eyes, stare at the floor and quietly follow Adri out of the room. Instead, she glared directly at Saturni. Her hand slipped into her pocket with the sancta. She could do it. If she could touch him, she could boil him alive, from the inside out. Then this war might be over.

  Adri tapped her shoulder. She shook her head.

  As they turned to leave, Solindra heard Saturni saying, “Codic has got some information it shouldn’t have, and it has been seriously damaging to the war machine and it’s not entry-level bullshit. Surely one of you sirs has been offered a deal by them. I will say now that listening to them will not be profitable to your health.”

  Time slowed down. Solindra inhaled for as long as it takes a glacier to move. Shadows seemed to lengthen out from the corners, and a new shadow was rising behind her. Through the window, she heard and felt what seemed to be every thump of the individual blades.

  A copper-colored helicopter platform was rising up to the board room behind the window. The things were hard to steer, and dangerous with their two rotating blades driven by a steam engine underneath the platform. There were smaller blades on each side facing outward to help guide the platform, but the controls were just a mess of levers and dials.

  Those levers were left unchecked. The masked man on the platform was aiming his rifle. Saturni’s eyes were just now starting to widen.

  Adri grabbed Solindra by the neck and threw them both to the floor. Solindra immediately started to roll over, her hand pawing at her sancta. She stared up through the window at the dual spinning blades. There was steam driving that engine. If she could just get the cipher medallion close enough…

  Adri placed a hand on her shoulder, and Solindra felt her chest constrict. Cold fire danced along her skin. Before all feeling numbed, she felt the prickling of the hammer shape of Adri’s sancta through her corset.

  “No,” the steam princess whispered. She pulled back her hand and the freezing weight from Solindra’s shoulder stopped pulsing.

  The rifleman fired at Saturni’s chest.

  But not before Saturni’s assistant began firing with his own pistol. In the same instant, they exchanged a volley of gunfire.

  Saturni recoiled in his seat and stared at the red smear across the leather from where the bullet had clipped his ear. The blood trickled into the hole in the back of the chair.

  The assistant stepped forward and landed another shot in the chest of the assassin. The stunned rifleman staggered back and collapsed off the helicopter platform, plunging out of sight. The machine tipped up and soared into the sky now that it had lost the counterweight.

  Solindra finally remembered to breathe. She pushed herself up to her knees and hands and stared at the floor. It seemed solid enough.

  “Get those girls out
of here!” was the only thing she heard. She thought it was Saturni’s voice, but she was far from certain.

  “Come along.” Adri pulled Solindra up by the shoulders and brushed off her dress as they slipped outside the room.

  Solindra was still shaking as they walked through the vaulted halls of Steampower’s headquarters. Adri just walked with a slight frown on her face, as if she had drunk sour milk.

  Suddenly, a tall, handsome man around Jing’s age, wearing the black uniform of a courier, winked at Solindra when he stepped into her path. She flinched and grabbed at her sancta, but Adri stepped directly in front of her.

  Judging by his calmness, she figured that he couldn’t possibly know what had just happened. She was still trying to slow her breathing.

  He handed a thick envelope to Adri. “To you personally, my lady.” With another wink, he was gone.

  Neither Solindra nor Adri watched him leave. The vessel tried to read around the other woman’s arm, but she couldn’t get a view.

  The steam princess immediately rolled the letter up. Then she smiled. “I think it’s time to fly away from this gilded cage.”

  Chapter Twelve

  “We don’t even know where Flame is.” Theo groaned and kicked another rock down the road. He inhaled more dust as he breathed. It was so thick that it created a low-hanging haze on the horizon, and the humidity made it stick to his skin. A town was visible in the distance, or at least the mirage of a town against the desert scrublands. They’d left the trees a few days behind by the river.

  “Be glad of that,” Drina replied. “It’s not him that we’re worried about.”

  “Cylinder’s got to be fine. He took her alive” Jing looked straight ahead as he limped down the road. “I hate to imagine what might’ve happened if she’d been with us when we encountered Smith.”

  “You know he’s circling us like an eagle again,” the assassin said. “He has to be.”

  “Doesn’t matter. We still find Cyl.”

  “We could just shoot him,” Theo offered.

  “Better be sure of that shot, boy.” Jing didn’t look down at him either. “More than just aim. The man’s a born crypter.”

  “Not a born crypter,” Drina whispered. The wind picked up around them, stealing their breath for conversation and bringing even more dust into their eyes and ears.

  As they drew closer, the shadows of the town’s buildings became more solid. They didn’t look burnt out either.

  Jing clumped down his metal foot. “This all brings us back to Flame, who is our only lead.”

  “No.” Theo bunched his fists. “Because the next time we see him, he’s going to have his candle snuffed out.”

  “You’d better be sure of that shot too, son,” Jing said.

  Drina lifted an eyebrow. “And you might want to, maybe, I don’t know, be armed first?”

  Theo growled, but couldn’t stop the flush from lighting up his face.

  “Or, knowing Flame, maybe calling him names will make him explode. Or you might discover your final heat tolerance. And he’s got Cyl.” She scowled. “I can’t even guess that vituperative jackass’s motive. Could be money. Could be Flame being Flame.”

  Jing nodded. “Remember when he used to try to grab the rising sun at sunrise like a kid chasing a rainbow? The ultimate fireball, he called it.”

  “And we don’t know where he is.”

  Theo felt his entire body lock up. “Yes, we do.” He gulped, finding himself unable to even bring his arm up to point.

  Flame waved at them from the road in front of the town. Smoke and fires were starting to rise up from behind him, towering high over the buildings. He spread out his arms and smiled like a miracle-performing saint as he walked out of the growing furnace behind him.

  Then he grinned like a toddler, his sabers and pistols all rattling together as he started to jog toward them. “Mm, nothing like the scent of chaos. I’m sorry I stole your spy and set your boat on fire. Let’s go get some coffee!”

  Theo still couldn’t move. This was the second time he’d met the murderer, and he couldn’t move!

  “Spy? What spy? Oh.” Jing lumbered in between the bricoleur and Flame.

  “So you went into contract work too?” He held his empty palms up to both Drina and Jing. “Guarding a Codic spy though, that’s a bit beneath us, don’t you think?”

  Drina just forced a smile.

  Flame checked over his shoulder to see the entire town. “Too bad it was already abandoned before I got here.” He smacked himself in the forehead. “Coffee, right! Um, the next town then? My bad.”

  Theo was vibrating as if in a very personal earthquake, unable to make his muscles respond to his mental commands.

  Flame leaned over toward Theo like a melodramatic actor. He shaded his eyes. “What’s he for?”

  “Training him up,” Jing answered.

  “What?” Flame barked a laugh. “You trying to put players back on the team? The Hex is over, man.”

  Theo ripped off his gloves and raised his scarred hands. He tore at his shirt to show the mess that was his chest. “You did this to me!”

  There was no reaction. No furrowed brow of thought, no perplexity or recognition. Flame eventually shrugged. “Eh, you survived. I don’t see what you’re complaining about.” He patted Theo’s head and grinned. “What do you fellas think about this war, huh?” He rubbed his hands. “Best fun I’ve had in years! No more sneaking around at night!”

  “You did this to me!” Theo screamed again.

  “What?” Flame blinked. “Sounds like someone’s a little obsessed if you ask me.” He whistled and pointed at his head, circling his finger in the universal sign language for crazy. “Hey, I figured you’d be moving away from the river–”

  “You did this!” Theo shoved Jing aside with all the strength of rage. He marched forward. “You burned me. You murdered my whole caravan. You killed my family!”

  Flame leaned away from the spittle. He inserted his pinky finger into his ear and wiggled it. “So? I murdered my whole family too. And you know what? It got me a job.” He licked his extracted earwax.

  Theo sputtered between rage and confusion. He stood motionlessly, trembling out of both emotions.

  “Can I kill him?” Flame looked at the mechanic. “You can find another apprentice.”

  “No,” Jing said.

  “Fine.” Flame shrugged. He rubbed his palms together again. “Where’s ol’ Silvermark? I want to know what happened to him after he went crazy and stole some dyin’ bitch’s baby.”

  “Dead,” Jing said.

  Flame spun around like a dancer and dipped his face next to Drina’s. He winked. “Finally did it, huh?”

  The Death Spinner shook her head. “He died of influenza.”

  The pyromaniac laughed. “I don’t believe it. Not unless you figured out how to poison somebody with the flu.”

  “You killed everyone I knew!” Theo screamed.

  Flame’s eyes flickered back over the young man. “Are we still talking about this?”

  “Y-You! You devil!”

  Drina pulled down Jing’s arm and whispered, “He’s gotten crazier through the years.”

  Jing shrugged. “Or maybe we’ve gone sane.” He cleared his throat and picked Theo up in one hand by the back of his neck. “Down, boy.”

  “What?” Theo kicked at the air uselessly.

  The Hex members ignored him while Jing set the bricoleur back down, but kept a squeeze on his shoulder. Drina pointed at Flame. “Why are you here?”

  Flame batted his eyes. “The folks over in Redjakel want me dead, so I thought I’d switch sides for a while. By the way, do you know that their idea of fire control is to shut their river-gates and flood the city? No joke! Town on fire and all gates closed to make a flood. This is fun at its finest!”

  An empty, wide-eyed silence saturated the air around them. Only the sounds of the winds fanning the flames could be heard.

  “Did you do that?” Dr
ina finally asked.

  “No.” Flame still grinned. “It’s too big, so then I remembered I saw my old friends and thought that they would want some fun too.”

  “Only us? What about the others?” Jing murmured.

  “Eh. Playboy Parrot’s supposedly working somewhere inside Codic, and Slayer is sailing with some foreign trading company on the other side of the world – provided he ain’t dead yet.” Flame shrugged again. “But I think the three, no, four of us could do it. I’ve got this balloon hidden on the library’s rooftop, so we’ll have a superb view. I’ll even bring some half-pennies we can throw at people.”

  Theo broke free and charged. Jing caught him up in two arms, but the enraged young man carried him a few feet down the road. “Did you throw half-pennies at my mother too? Did you throw half-pennies at my brothers?”

  The bricoleur wrenched against Jing, but the mechanic’s grip was steel.

  “I like him.” Flame smiled. “He’s got an inner fire.” He tilted his head to the side. “Look at it burnin’ in his pretty eyes. So pretty.”

  Theo dug his heels into the ground, suddenly reeling away from the insanity. Jing let go.

  Flame ducked forward in the moment of movement and danced back before.

  “What– How did you–?” Theo could see his few remaining phosphorus capsules in between Flame’s fingers. “Hey!” He grabbed at his pockets.

  Flame suddenly twisted apart one of the capsules and threw the sparking, fiery powder into the air. “You’re trying to replace me! He’s supposed to be the new Flame, ain’t he? You’re building a new Hex!”

  Both of the other Hex members started to laugh, all the while never diverting their eyes from him.

  “Please!” Drina chuckled. “Not unless Silvermark ordered it. Oh, and he can’t.”

  “And I don’t want to go back to playing for both Steampower and Codic, especially now.” Jing managed a grin.

  “Both sides?” Theo rasped. But his mouth was already drying out. “All of you used to play both sides? Like what they forced us to do?”

  Flame waved a hand in front of Theo’s face. “Poor bastard is just stuck in the past.” He whipped his fiery grin back to the other two. “So, Redjakel then?”