Steemjammer: Through the Verltgaat

by John Eubank

  “Let’s not find out,” she said. “Will, Angelica, Giselle. I sincerely hope I haven’t caused you harm, but so far it seems we’ve avoided such a tragedy. Don’t you see now why you have to stay somewhere safe?”

  “Yes, but what about my father?” he protested. “There’s got to be a clue as to what happened to him. He’s the only one who can find our mother, and what about Giselle? Dad’s the only one who can rescue Onkel Deet, and Marteenus said he wasn’t feeding him anymore. There isn’t much time.”

  Stefana let out a heavy sigh. “Deet’s my brother, and I have many fond memories of him. Please keep that in mind when I say we don’t have any choice, because I don’t want anything to happen to him, either. The verltgaat will open or not Thursday morning. If it does, and if you’re still safe, then, we can take care of those other things.

  “With Beverkenhaas secured, we can search for clues in a meaningful way and rescue Deetricus.” She turned to Giselle, whose face had turned very pale. “Don’t worry, leef. Your father can go several weeks without food, maybe longer. Besides, as evil as Marteenus is, he won’t let your father die. He’s too valuable as a bargaining tool alive.”

  “Ye need tah do what yer Aunty Stef says,” Donell added gently. “She knows what’s best.”

  “Trust me, kinter, please,” she said. “Donell will see you to safe transportation that will get you to Tante Klazee’s, where you must stay. Do you understand?”

  Will wanted to work out better ways to spy on Bram, but this new information unnerved him. Had they already been damaged by letting others call them Stevens? What if she was right and even misleading people might result in real harm? Was this why he’d been feeling so weak? His sister was particularly sensitive, and he feared for her, too.

  “Yes, Tante Stefana,” he agreed. “I understand.”

  The others nodded.

  “Thank you,” she said. “You’ll find it hard to wait, so be sterk. Come Thursday, everything will change. I’m sure of it.”

  ***

  “Dinna worry, lass,” Donell said to Angelica after leading them down a series of long hallways to a loading bay and rushing them into the back of a waiting steemwagon. “Mildred will be yer driver, and we can trust her as we can trust the sun tah rise in the mornin’.”

  “No,” she said. “I meant what about when Monday comes and Bram notices we’re not here. Won’t he get suspicious?”

  “I have all Saturday and Sunday tah muddle on tha’. Now, Mildred will be here shortly – er, soon. Stay quiet and wait for her instructions.”

  Cobee scowled with frustration. “I don’t get it. We have all the steemtraps we need. We’ve been training for years to fight. Why do we keep hiding from them like scared rabbits when we should attack?”

  “We’re ready,” Angelica added. “Dad’s trained us how to fight as long as I can remember, but Will’s the one who’s good at it. He stood up to a Shadovecht.”

  Donell studied their concerned faces and sighed.

  “I dinna like this any more than ye,” he admitted. “Fightin’ time will come, and soon. But not now. Thursday’s just a heartbeat away. The time will pass in a wink. Keep faith.”

  He shut the door, and the cargo area of the steemwagon, the size of a typical delivery van on Old Earth, became quite dark. Only a narrow crack in the door and a small hole in the side let in light.

  “Dis stinkan,” Cobee groaned. This stinks. “Sent away like a box of old junk!”

  “She said it was for our own good,” Angelica replied, trying to put a positive spin on things.

  “Hiding the truth from us on Old Earth,” Giselle said, “was ‘for our own good,’ and look where that got us. If they’d even told us a little about this place, I don’t think we would’ve gone opening verltgaats willy-nilly and let a Shadovecht into Beverkenhaas.”

  “Maybe they didn’t tell us about this place to keep us from having to lie.”

  “Cobee’s right,” Will said. “This does stink. Dad lied or misled people all the time, and he didn’t lose his goot steem.”

  “Same with my dad,” Giselle said.

  A troubled expression brewed on Angelica’s face. “What if they did? Dad vanished, didn’t he? And Onkel Deet got captured. Could that have happened because they got bad steem?”

  Will hadn’t considered that, and he had no answer. Giselle looked worried and had nothing to say, either.

  “This is awful,” Cobee muttered. “The big Steemball tournament starts Thursday, and now it looks like I’ll have to miss it.”

  The others gave him incredulous stares.

  “Don’t you think,” Giselle said, “that there’s something a little more important than a game?”

  “Ach,” he said miserably, “you’re right, but can I help it if I’m a fan?”

  “Fine. I just hope it won’t get you down, because we’re going to need you. And Will, why did you let Tante Stefana boss you around like that?”

  “What?” he said defensively.

  “In three days you learned something about Bram they haven’t noticed in who-knows-how-long! How does Tante Stefana know all the space rock pieces don’t do something special? Instead, she treats us like we’re little kinter.”

  “Hey, I am a little kint!” Angelica huffed.

  “Quiet, please,” Will urged in a whisper. His stomach had gone from nauseous to cramped, and his joints ached. “I don’t like this either, but we mustn’t draw attention to ourselves.” He peered through the small hole in the side of the steemwagon. “What’s taking Mildred?”

  Across the loading bay, he noticed a door opening. To his astonishment, out stepped Bram Rasmussen.

  The boy seemed to glance right at him but continued looking past, and Will realized there was no way he could have seen him through the tiny hole. Bram signaled to his hulking bodyguard, and they snuck across the room.

  “Stay quiet!” Will hissed.

  They tensed, wondering what he saw.

  “Cobee, what’s this place for?” he whispered.

  “Deliveries,” Cobee whispered, “for artifacts, machines, raw materials – all sorts of bulk items.”

  “And over there? More junk rooms?”

  “Well, storage rooms. It’s not junk.”

  “That explains it. For a moment, I thought he was following us, but he’s here to keep searching.”

  “Who?” Angelica said softly.

  “Bram.”

  Will shifted to peer out the crack in the rear door and watched as Bram and the bodyguard hid behind a stack of crates, waiting for a worker to go past. Then, they scurried quietly towards a large door in the far wall.

  “What’s over there?” Will whispered.

  Cobee put his eye to the crack. “A big warehouse, stacked with crates, floor to ceiling.”

  “Any sky stones, hidden in plain sight?”

  Cobee shrugged, continuing to peek. “I don’t see Donell, or Mildred. They’re going in!”

  Testing the large door at the back of the steemwagon, Will found it wasn’t locked. He opened it part way and looked out.

  “Will, don’t!” Angelica peeped.

  “Sh!” he said. “I just want to find out where they go, what boxes they open.”

  “I’m coming,” Cobee said, and Will didn’t argue.

  “I should come, too,” Giselle said.

  “Maybe we all should,” Will said.

  “They told us to stay here,” Angelica protested, grabbing his arm. “Don’t leave me!”

  “We have to, Angie-bee. This could be a clue that changes everything.”

  Opening the door a little more, he slid out.

  “I’ll stay with you,” Giselle told Angelica, hoping to calm her.

  Seeing no one, Will starting sneaking toward the warehouse door, followed by Cobee.

  “Come back!” Angelica whispered after them.

  “If Mildred shows up,” Will said softly, “tell her to wait. We’ll just be a couple of minutes.”

&nb
sp; ***

  “Where are they?” Cobee whispered.

  Dark and gloomy, lit by a sliver of light coming through a cracked door, the warehouse seemed to go on for quite a distance. Will tapped his cousin’s shoulder and pointed at a flicker of lantern light that bobbed and then went out.

  “Over there,” Will whispered, wishing his stomach didn’t hurt. “They just went behind something.”

  “Look,” Cobee hissed.

  To the side, a pale light moved sideways and vanished.

  “Ah, they’ve split up,” Will whispered.

  “Should we?”

  “Yeah, go that way. Count your steps. Don’t go in more than 100, and then come right back.”

  “Right.”

  “Cobee? Don’t knock anything over. We can’t get caught.”

  In seconds his cousin vanished from his sight. Will glanced back and saw that if worse came to worse, he could make for the sliver of light that marked the door. Only now did he realize the risk they were taking, and he considered stopping.

  No, he thought, Bram and Lockwood had entered yet another place to further their search, and no one from Donell’s staff seemed to be watching. If someone didn’t step up the effort to find out what they were after, he feared they would lose everything, so he had to go on.

  Counting his steps, his stomach began cramping even more, and his knees started shaking. What he’d thought was just jitters from the crazy train ride earlier turned out to be a very real weakness in his leg muscles. He’d never felt anything like it before.

  Scared, he lost count and decided to head back, but the sliver of light was gone. Had someone shut the door? He could feel his heart beating fast, and each step he took in the pitch darkness became heavier and heavier. What was wrong with him?

  “Cobee,” he whispered.

  The wound on his side throbbed with white hot pain. Lifting his shirt, he put his hand under the poultice and felt something wet. Blood? Why did it suddenly hurt so much?

  “Help!” he tried to say a little louder, hoping only his cousin would hear, but no sound came out.

  Knowing he had to get back to the steemwagon fast, he took several steps but found his legs could no longer hold him up. He fell to the floor in a heap.

  Again he tried to call for his cousin, but the pain in his side was too great. He curled up in agony, realizing his arms and legs no longer moved normally, the pain being replaced by an alarming sensation of numbness and cold.

  “Help!” he gasped.

  His thigh muscles twitched erratically. A horrifying draining sensation swept up and down his whole body. He tried to get back up but couldn’t even make himself crawl.

  Feeling like his gut was on fire, he tried not to panic as one by one his muscles seemed to be shutting off. His left leg stopped twitching, and in moments his right one was just as stiff.

  “Well, well,” a familiar voice said quietly in the darkness. “What have we here?”

  Will struggled to look up. With blurry vision he saw a hint of light leaking from a hooded lantern, and a tussle of dark hair with a white forelock hovered over him.

  “Told you to drink some Noftalekt Juice,” Bram whispered smugly.

  Footsteps sounded, and Will felt strong hands grabbing his ankles. He wanted to fight back, but he couldn’t move at all. Helpless, he found himself unable to speak. Even more startling, it became harder to breathe, as Bram and Lockwood dragged him silently away.

  Chapter 23

  a right muckled guddle

  “What are they doing down there?” Marteenus said.

  Standing in the small wood and brass gondola that hung from his steam-powered airship, he spied on Beverkenhaas through a leather-bound telescope. For several days now he’d been tracing a cautious route near Beverkenhaas, hovering a while to spy, and then veering away out of fear.

  He’d hoped to remain unnoticed, but a white-haired man and a large woman had seen him earlier, causing him great concern. Were they Henry’s allies?

  “That brainless idiot, Alfonz, has left his steemwagon there,” he said to himself, swinging his telescope to the vehicle and trying to make sense of his observations. “He has the wanderlust, and that means he can’t stay long in one place. That means he’s either going insane from being cooped up, or they’ve opened a world hole!”

  That had to be it. How long did they plan to stay in Beverkenverlt, he wondered, or had they set a trap for him?

  “Are they here or not?” Marteenus said aloud.

  He had to get access to their gadgetry! Years ago, the Rasmussens had promised him a ridiculously generous reward for his betrayal, but everything had gone wrong when Ricardus had come through, smashing the verltgaat machine he’d co-opted and sending him running in fear. Every day that went by, Marteenus knew his chances of returning home and collecting his reward grew slimmer, and now he found himself wondering if they’d pay at all.

  “Of course they will,” he assured himself. “I’ve got to get back, but Hendrelmus - where is he?”

  ***

  “What do you mean, ‘Will’s gone?’”

  Stefana’s hollow-sounding voice came out of the brass speaking tube in Donell’s cramped and cluttered office, which was on the ground floor near the Steem Museum’s enormous entrance.

  “We can’t find him,” Cobee shouted into the tube.

  “I sent you all home!” she replied hotly. “What are you doing here?”

  Donell nudged Cobee aside and shouted into the tube. “He says they followed Bram into the warehouse, and Cobee lost Will in the darkness. He alerted Museum workers and came tah find me.”

  “Groes Vevardinker, is everyone disappearing now?”

  The door to Donell’s office flew open, and a stack of boxes tumbled to the floor. Brass nuts and groat klonks flew everywhere. Angelica, who’d thrown open the door with surprising force, looked down.

  “Sorry!” she gasped breathlessly.

  “Och, what’re ye doin’, blowin’ down mah door like an over-stoked turbine?” Donell growled.

  “Mildred!”

  She was too out of breath to say any more.

  “Mildred?” Donell asked.

  Angelica tried to control her panting. “Tall lady – doesn’t like – cleaning – donkey mess.”

  “I know Mildred, but why’d ye say her name?”

  “She told – told me – that ….”

  “Lass, catch yer breath!”

  “What’s going on down there?” they heard Stefana ask with annoyance. “What’s this about donkey mess?”

  “It’s Angelica,” Donell shouted into the tube. “She’s found something.”

  “Mildred said,” the girl managed, finally catching her breath, “that she saw the Razzies dragging something out one of the east side doors!”

  “What’s this?” Donell boomed. “They’re not supposed tah have a key!”

  “It was something in a sack.”

  “Was it Will?”

  Angelica’s answer, a sudden outburst of sobs, confirmed his worst fear. After a moment of shocked silence, everyone started talking at once.

  “Wheesht!” shouted Donell. Quiet! He turned to the brass tube to speak to Stefana. “Best tah call an emergency. Shut down the Museum.”

  “On what pretext?” Stefana said.

  “Boiler about tah blow? Kwellgeest invasion?”

  “Hoy!” cried a faint, high pitched, tinny voice from one of the other brass speaking tubes. It was Mildred.

  “Och, what now?” Donell grumbled, fumbling for the key to open the panel that covered the emergency shut-down levers.

  “Donell,” came Mildred’s faint voice, “Bram and his henchman have taken something in a large sack from the Museum! They stole a locomobile from the east parking lot and left. Even worse, the children say that Will’s missing! Do you think-”

  “East side?” Donell shouted into the tube, interrupting. “Which road did they take?”

  “I didn’t see. I was running to t
he speaking tube.”

  Donell shifted to the tube connected to Stefana and filled her in. Giselle arrived, also panting from a long run.

  “Any luck?” she got out, but it was plain from Angelica and Cobee’s faces things had gone very wrong.

  “Cancel the shut-down,” Stefana said. “They’re already gone. Our only hope now is that they don’t know who it is they have.”

  An anguished look crossed Angelica’s tear-streaked face. “We have to do something!”

  “Quick!” Donell shouted. “The Steemball Shop! We fire up a trap, one built for speed, overtake ‘em, drive ‘em off the road, and rescue him!”

  “Stop!” Stefana’s voice cried from the tube.

  “No time tah argue!”

  “It won’t work, and you know it. Five minutes just to reach the Shop, then four times that to fire up a boiler.”

  “Bah,” Donell growled, “we’ll use a flash boiler.”

  “Even then it takes time, and they’ll already be crossing the river. So please, don’t!”

  The short man stopped himself with great effort at the doorway and dashed back to the speaking tube. “But we have tah try!”

  “No,” she insisted, “it could be fatal! Denk!” Think! “We don’t know why they took him. What if they still think he’s Will Stevens? If we’re seen racing out of here, they’ll be tipped off!”

  The others blanched in horror.

  “This is madness!” Donell argued.

  “Believe me,” Stefana said gravely, “I like this less than you. Doing nothing may be Will’s only hope.”

  “‘Only hope?’ If they dinna know who he is, they’ll draw it out o’ him. Is there really no way to catch them?”

  “Tell me, please, because I can’t think of one.”

  Donell racked his brain and ended up kicking the wall. “Och, we should’ve had an airship on standby. Now he’s lost!”

  “Don’t say that,” Stefana countered sternly. “Will has goot steem and plenty to spare. It’s gotten us out of tight spots before. We’ve got to keep faith.”

  Donell lowered his head and blew a puff of air.

  “So, we do absolutely nothing until tomorrow morning,” he said, “and then have a standard response for a missing Volunteer, just like he was anyone else in the program?”