Fields of Gold: A steampunk adventure novel (Magnificent Devices Book 12)

by Shelley Adina

  “Why, no,” he said. “Alice loaded all of them on Swan. That was why she was shot down—the ship was so heavy with all that iron that she couldn’t maneuver as quickly, and the cannon on the watch tower put a hole through the stern of the fuselage.”

  “Were they destroyed?”

  “No. They landed awkwardly and with some damage, but apparently Jake and Benny unloaded them all and to my knowledge, they’re still sitting on top of the mesa above the village.”

  “Mother Mary’s village? Is that where the Viceroy is, too?”

  “Yes, according to plan.”

  Gloria handed her wineglass to her husband, and paced the Turkey carpet once across. “We must send someone with a message. We must get the mechanicals down off the mesa and add them to the army. Men on horseback are no match for those mechanicals—I saw them being built, back in Philadelphia. Evan,” she said, “you must teach the most likely men in the commander’s troops to ride them.”

  “Me! I’ve never even seen one. They were crated.”

  “If you can learn to operate the behemoth, you can do this. You cannot ride them yourself, of course. The behemoth will go to war along with everyone else. That wretch de Aragon will not know what hit him when he sees my iron army coming.”

  “Technically I believe it is my iron army,” Honoria said dryly.

  “Technically it is neither of yours,” Ella pointed out. “It is Felipe’s, and he ought to lead it. The question is, how can we send a message? None of us dare go. Honoria might once have been best qualified to slip past the pickets and go where she was not wanted, but not now.”

  Gloria caught her husband grinning at Evan. “What are you two smiling about? What state secret are you keeping from us?”

  Evan leaned in, as though about to whisper. “Thanks to the brilliant system operating within your fleet, the behemoth has attracted a pigeon,” he said. “Let us send it to Swan at once.”

  Alice and Ian, Mother Mary and Sister Clara, Felipe—our best greetings.

  With de Aragon’s declaration of his Regency and the subsequent division of the country in civil war, it seems that all our efforts to stop it have been for nothing. So, we must now put our efforts into bringing it to a short and successful end. Please find a way to convey the mechanicals to the fort at the water meadows without delay. Gloria believes I can teach the soldiers to operate them, and we will take the field against de Aragon’s horses.

  I am also bidden to tell you that Gloria and Ella have put Mother Mary’s grand plan into motion. H. is safe and well here at the fort, and sends her best love. She takes no chances, however, and prefers to remain aboard Silver Wind when she is not carrying out more public duties. H. wishes nothing more than to see her brother in his rightful place once again. We are all working for a better future for a country that will balance independence and innovation with the joys of family, faith, and tradition.

  Come with all haste.

  Your friend,

  Evan

  Felipe handed the letter back to Mother Mary. “What he means to convey is that the kingdom I am to take back is no longer the same as the one I was forced to leave.”

  “Seems unavoidable.” Mother Mary was not about to be drawn into an argument. “The moment anyone declares civil war, you can pretty much guarantee that the country is going to be different when all is said and done.”

  “And this Honoria—my half sister—she has no designs on the throne herself?”

  Tia Clara snorted and held out her mug for Alice to top it up with good, hot coffee. Now that the river was running properly again, such luxuries were available once more. “Felipe, my dear, you can ask her that when you see her, but I’ll tell you now, the throne is in no danger. There are many more comfortable places to park one’s bones.”

  The Viceroy did not look very reassured. “And what about my mechanicals? How are we to get them down off the mesa?”

  “You leave that to me and May Lin,” Alice told him. “With her spider at the bottom of the river and only three working gas bags, we can still do it, but we’re going to have to make two trips in Swan.”

  “What does May Lin have to do with that?” the prince asked stiffly. “Is she familiar with airships as well as all manner of gears and levers?”

  Alice had noticed that he was as jumpy as a bean on a hot stove around the slender, dark-eyed young engineer. She couldn’t decide if it was because he had never been within speaking distance of a person of Canton descent, or if it was simply because May Lin treated him like any other riverman—which was to say, with a respect that might be called casual at best. Alice could see where a person who was used to bowing and scraping would find this irritating—though Ian could be said to command immense respect in his proper sphere, and he got along with May Lin just fine.

  Or maybe there were deeper forces at work. Alice smiled to herself behind her mug of coffee, and reflected that being attracted to someone who was not only utterly unsuitable but had no use for anything you represented would certainly make the course of love run any way but smooth.

  “May Lin is going to teach the witches to ride the mechanicals,” Alice told him. “She’ll start as soon as we unload them at Santa Croce.”

  “What?” Felipe sat up straighter in his chair, if that were possible. “My soldiers are to ride them. I am to ride them, if it comes to that, and lead the charge.”

  “Are you? How are you going to explain the sudden appearance of two Viceroys at the fort?” Mother Mary gazed at him, one dark eyebrow raised. “You can’t just ride in and lead the soldiers when Honoria is already doing that.”

  “Why—why—then why did Evan Douglas suggest it?”

  “It probably seemed like a good idea at the time, but it ain’t. The mechanicals are spoils of war, and they happen to be in our hands. Not yours. Not de Sola’s. And in our hands they’re going to stay.”

  “But they’re mine, bought and paid for!”

  “And a lot of good they’re doing you, up on the mesa,” Mother Mary said calmly. “We don’t mind you riding with us. We don’t even mind you claiming victory when you have it. But when we beat de Aragon’s forces and he’s in your gaol waiting for the firing squad, we’ll be riding off with the tools that helped you win. Seems to me they’ll come in pretty handy.”

  Felipe’s mouth worked as he tried to rein in the imperial temper ... which told Alice the boy had some sense, at least. Alice had not known Mother Mary long in person, but she’d known of the mythical leader of las brujas for several years. One didn’t inspire a reputation as wide as the Wild West by lying down and letting people walk on you.

  Felipe nodded once, abruptly, to indicate that he knew when he’d been beaten. There was no throne here, after all, and the chair he sat in had been used by all manner of folks with no consideration for prince or pauper.

  Alice put down her mug and stood. Ian rose with her, having finished his breakfast rolled up in its pancake of corn, and was now plainly itching to get to work. “Felipe,” she said, “I’ve suggested to May Lin that she teach you how to ride the largest armored horse, since it looks like it’s meant to lead the charge. Once you learn, then you can teach others. It will go faster that way. There have to be a hundred horses and cats up there, and we’ll all need to be as expert as we can be before we see the northern forces coming.”

  “That will be suitable,” he said, still a little stiff with affront at not getting his own way.

  “Now that it is common knowledge that the Viceroy himself is mustering the troops in the south,” Ian added, “de Aragon will be even more determined to take the field with all speed. I am sure he believes that once Honoria is captured, the entire southern part of the country will capitulate.”

  “That won’t happen,” Tia Clara said grimly, getting up as well. “My girl has never been beaten in a fight, and I don’t see it happening now.”

  If Felipe had any thoughts about his half-sister’s capabilities in comparison with his own, he kept them t
o himself as he followed Alice and Ian from the sun terrace. Messengers were dispatched to sister villages up and down the river to muster for the fight, and two of the riverboat captains collected their crews for the journey upriver, where they would convey those from farther away down to Santa Croce.

  Up on the mesa, Jake found himself in the unenviable position of teaching both an engineer and a prince how to ride the armored horse without first making a complete fool of himself. He had learned his lesson the first time, though, so at least there was no waste of armaments.

  “It holds cannon in its chest!” exclaimed Felipe, examining the twin barrels. “Truly, it is a marvel.”

  “The marvel will be whether or not you can fire it accurately at full gallop,” May Lin said. “If you are to lead the charge instead of someone like Alice, or me, then you’re going to need some practice.”

  “I am perfectly capable of firing it!” the prince snapped. “I can hit a target with pistols at forty yards.”

  “Your target probably isn’t moving, and neither are you.”

  “That is beside the point!”

  “That is entirely the point. Get up, then, and see if you remember the ignition sequence.”

  Fuming, seeing that Jake was already aboard his horse, he climbed into the saddle and fitted his knees and feet into the shields that would protect them. The horses operated using kineticks, so getting them moving was a sequence of smaller movements, one gear fitting into another until the whole was galloping on razor legs that flashed in the light. Alice imagined what the mesa must look like from a distance—like a lightning storm without a single cloud.

  Mounted on the smaller mechanicals, the witches formed a wedge. Up and down they galloped, a quarter mile this way and a quarter mile back. Then, upon an arm signal from Felipe, he, May Lin, and Jake released temporary projectiles from their mounts’ cannon. Alice had advised them to save the real ones for when it counted. Their target, a boulder lying near the uninhabited edge of the mesa, sustained no damage at all except a glancing blow.

  May Lin pulled her mechanical into a walk and shouted at Felipe, “You’re going to have to do better than that if you plan to put an end to your enemy.”

  “I have only just learned to manage this monster this morning!” he shouted back, clearly incensed at her criticism. “You are doing no better.”

  “Not so—mine was the only cannonball to hit the rock.”

  “She’s right,” Jake said, much to Alice’s amusement. But it would not do to show so much as a quiver of the lips at such a tense moment. Had the prince ever been allowed to fail at anything, other than being poisoned?

  “I’ll show you, you painted female,” Felipe fumed, and set his beast in motion. All alone, he thundered across the flat top of the mesa and released his cannonball in a puff of smoke.

  A chunk of the boulder flew off and tumbled down the cliff.

  May Lin hadn’t an ungracious bone in her body, though heaven knew she had plenty of stubborn ones. She cheered as the prince rode up, sweating and filthy and triumphant. “Now, back into formation and we’ll do it again,” she called to the others through her speaking horn.

  By dawn the next day, witches in full paint had begun to stream into the village and set up camp on the sun terraces and up on the mesa. Those who had ridden the day before demonstrated the mechanicals to the new arrivals. Instead of taking the day off and resting on his laurels, Felipe went back up the stone chute to the top, limping a little but determined to master the armored horse. Not to be outdone, May Lin and Jake went with him, though the latter assured Alice that it was only in a teaching capacity. “I’m not looking for another job, Captain,” he said. “When you’re in the air, Benny and I will be, too.”

  On the morning of the third day after they’d received Evan’s pigeon, Alice sent back a reply.

  Evan, Gloria, &c,

  Drills taking place on the mesa have prepared our forces to ride. With due respect to de Sola and you all, F. will lead the witches himself. Tell no one. In the confusion H. must slip away.

  I will watch from the air and alert you to the approach of northern troops. They will not be able to surprise us.

  Alice

  Chapter 21

  “Captain,” Benny Stringfellow said from his post at the viewing port, “there’s an awful lot of dust down there.”

  They had been circling the water meadows for two days now, allowing the witches to form their phalanxes of mechanicals, to practice riding and shooting, and to eat and rest before the inevitable battle. The soldiers at the fort had eventually stopped ducking and running at the sight of Swan making her slightly less than graceful way across the sky, having clearly been briefed by Evan and Commander de Sola. But Alice had not dared to moor at the fort in case someone decided it would be a good idea to impound Swan in exchange for the missing mechanicals. She had no idea what story Evan would have told de Sola to explain the change in plans, but in any case, the soldiers had been marching and exercising in the warm sun as though they fully expected to fight this battle on foot.

  Alice left the helm in Ian’s care and joined her gunner at the viewing port. Far below, trains chugged southward. Spread across the rolling, dry landscape were the multiple causes of the dust clouds—thousands of men and horses.

  “Jake, I need your sharp eyes to estimate numbers,” she said over one shoulder. “Ian, be prepared to increase speed for a return to the fort.”

  Jake joined them at the viewing port, his gaze rapidly assessing as his quick brain made calculations. “Seven thousand foot and horse,” he said. “Perhaps another three on the trains, if each carriage holds fifty.”

  “I think we may assume they do,” Alice said, nodding. “All right, then, back to the fort as fast as we can. They’re still half a day away, and I doubt they’ll attack. They’ll need to set up camp and rest the horses.”

  “If they follow the classic rules,” Ian said, spinning the wheel to bring them round, “they’ll send Honoria an ultimatum first.”

  “That will go over well,” Alice observed with some pleasure at the thought.

  Benny had not left the port. “We could shoot some of them now,” he said eagerly. “I bet I could derail a train if we came low enough and I had a clear shot.”

  Alice grinned and ruffled his hair. “I bet you could, too, but this isn’t our war. We’ll assist where we’re needed, but I’m mainly concerned with protecting our friends, even if that means scooping them up in the basket to get them out of harm’s way.”

  “You mean we’re not going to bomb the traitor?” Benny’s face fell in disappointment. “We’ve got all kinds of bombs—it would be silly not to use them.”

  “If Gloria and Honoria give us the go-ahead, then we will,” Alice assured him. “But technically, you know, these are not our skies.”

  “I didn’t hear you say that when you were leaving to blow up the dam,” Benny grumbled.

  “I have enough on my conscience on that score, young man. The witches asked for our help and we gave it to the best of our ability, but what we did is not an easy thing to live with. Besides, if not for you and Jake, what was left of Ian and me would be washing out to sea about now. I want to be able to render our friends the same kind of service you and Jake gave us.”

  “I suppose,” Benny conceded, unwillingly. “But you’ll need a gunner in any case, won’t you?”

  “I certainly will,” she said. “Even using the basket could be a dicey business if Gloria’s pa happened to have sold them a crate of those nasty propelled bullets we saw in the Canadas. I’ll need you then for true.”

  Evan had sent the pigeon back with an encouraging note from Gloria and Honoria, so Alice scribbled a message, enclosed it in the little device’s brass body, and sent it on its way to the behemoth.

  Northern forces half a day off, with two trains closing fast. Jake estimates 7000 foot and horse, and 3000 aboard the trains. Ian thinks they’ll issue an ultimatum, but I don’t trust de Aragon to a
bide by the rules of war. Keep your eyes open. We’ll moor at Santa Croce and be in the sky tomorrow by dawn.

  Alice

  The sentry posted in the fort’s watchtower blew his horn, and in moments the southern escort rode out to close around the envoy from the northern forces camped upon the ridge. Only one, however, wearing the white sash of truce, was allowed into Honoria’s and Gloria’s presence in the saloon of Silver Wind, and only then under close guard.

  The envoy did not bow. “I bring you greetings and a message from His Serene Highness the Regent of the Royal Kingdom of Spain and the Californias.”

  Honoria folded her arms. “This is a sad beginning, to be flinging an illegal title in my face without so much as a by your leave.”

  The envoy swallowed and said nothing. He must be a very brave man, to come in the traitor’s place knowing he could be shot and sent back over an unsaddled horse, his feet and hands tied together.

  Honoria waved a hand. “Very well, say what you have come to say.”

  The envoy inclined his head. “I speak for the Regent, who advises you to surrender before any blood of your countrymen is spilled. You will be treated fairly, for your father’s sake, and your madness treated as well as may be in the mission hospital at San Francisco de Asis, where you may dwell in peace for the rest of your days.”

  “And if I do not accept these generous terms?”

  “Then upon my return to His Serene Highness, war will be declared and we will meet you forthwith upon the field of battle.”

  Honoria gazed at him for some moments, during which the envoy shifted his weight from foot to foot. “Have you had any difficulty in your journey south?”

  “Difficulty, sir?”