Shanghai Sparrow

by Gaie Sebold

  She said, “She taught me things, helped me. She’s not respectable, but... and the things she taught me, they’re not, either, mostly. I don’t mean... well. I’ve had to do some things. Stealing.”

  Silence, still, from Mama. Then a sigh.

  Eveline forced herself to look up. “Mama?”

  She was crying, silently, tears tracking the lines on her face. “I was afraid... when she wasn’t with you. And she was so young, and not well... Oh, Eveline.”

  “I’m sorry, Mama.”

  “No. No, don’t say that. I failed you. I failed you both.”

  “No!” Eveline leapt to her feet. “You didn’t. You never did. It was Uncle James, he had you put away. It was all his fault. He wanted to steal your work, didn’t he? But you can get it back, Mama. It’s all here! All your machines.”

  “They’re here? Eveline, I don’t understand. What is this place?”

  “It’s a sort of school. It’s run by the government, so it’s respectable. And if I can just do what they want, I’ll get an allowance. And a pension. Only they don’t know about you. And the man who brought me here, Mr Holmforth, I don’t trust him. If he gets to know about you... see, that’s why I asked Liu to hide you away up here. I know it’s not very nice.”

  “My dear, I’ve been in an asylum. I am hardly used to luxury.”

  “Was it terrible?”

  “At first, yes. I tried to tell them... but no-one listened. I was so worried about you both...” Her face twisted horribly, and it was a moment before she could go on. “After a while, I became resigned, I suppose. I wrote letters, once they knew I could be trusted with pen and paper. I don’t suppose you received them.”

  “No, Mama. He told us you were dead.” Oh, how she hated Uncle James. How she wished he were still alive, so that she could destroy him, break him into little pieces, take everything from him, make him see what a wretched, miserable creature he was.

  “Yes, you told me. I’m sorry, Eveline. My memory... in any case, they kept us occupied. Laundry.” She attempted a smile. “I became rather more skilled at laundering shirts than I ever was at home.”

  “They made you do laundry?”

  “It was thought better to keep us occupied. Laundry and stitching for the women, woodworking and so forth for the men. I made the mistake of asking to do some of the men’s work. It was considered a sign of relapse.” She shuddered.

  “You weren’t allowed to do your own work?”

  “Oh, no. James and his doctor friends, they made sure of that. They said it was what had sent me into my distressed state and that I should under no circumstances be permitted to attempt anything. What I did, I managed in secret, with scraps... My dear, tell me, please, do you know what happened to the work? You say it’s here, all my machines, and my notes?”

  “Yes. And I don’t think it’s been used, at all. Uncle James must have tried to use it, I think, or at least to get money from it. I think that’s how Holmforth found out about him – but everyone except Holmforth seems to think it’s just an idea, something that doesn’t really work. That’s why Holmforth – he’s the man who brought me here – he wanted me to use it, he thinks because Uncle James could do Etherics, I mean, he believed Uncle James was the one – he thinks it means I could too. Only I can’t.”

  “Oh, that stupid idea! It’s a science! Not something you inherit, like the colour of your hair! One studies. One learns. But... Eveline, what does he want you to do?”

  “He wants me to go to Shanghai.”

  “What? Where?”

  “Shanghai. It’s in China. Well it’s sort of in China. Anyway, he’s got something there he thinks works by Etherics and he wants me to go and do something with it.”

  “Eveline.” Mama leaned forward and took Eveline’s hands in her own. “My pet, do you know what it is, this thing?”

  “I don’t know, Mama. But I have to learn. I hoped you could help me. Because I got your notes, but I’m not that good, and some of it I don’t understand at all.”

  “Oh, Eveline, no.”

  “Mama?”

  “No. Eveline, no, you can’t. Not without knowing what they want it for.”

  “I don’t understand,” Eveline said.

  “Your Uncle James, he thought... Eveline, how much do you understand about Etherics?

  “Almost nothing,” Eveline said.

  “Listen. Do you remember that the sounds made you happy?”

  “Yes...”

  “Yes. That is what they were for. I tried to make some experiments in the hospital, but my resources were so limited, and I had to be so careful... but in any case. Etherics are intended to create positive mental states, Eveline. To soothe troubled minds, and heal broken ones. That is their function. But James... James thought it could be used against people. You understand? Not for healing, but as a weapon. I didn’t know if it was even possible, I’d never taken my researches in that direction, nor would I, but I couldn’t risk it. That’s why I started hiding my notes. And then, of course, I was taken away. This man, Holmforth...”

  “Yes, Mama.”

  “He works for the government.”

  “Yes, Mama.”

  “I don’t know, Eveline. You say you don’t trust him. You think, if he got this into his hands, it would be used for good, or...”

  Eveline bit her lip. “It would be used for the Empire,” she said.

  “And what would that mean?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “I can’t risk it, Eveline. I can’t.”

  “But if I don’t do what he wants, I may get thrown out. Then... there won’t be any money, or anything. I don’t know what will happen.”

  Mama glanced at the shuttered window, and shivered. “No. Oh, dear. Where should we go? What skills I had...” She looked down at her hands, red and swollen from doing laundry. “And with no references...”

  “Mama, did I do wrong? Taking you out of that place?”

  She hesitated just a fraction too long before she said, “Not wrong, my pet. You were just impulsive. You always were.” Then she tried to smile. “And if you hadn’t, I would have gone on thinking I’d lost you. Come here.”

  Eveline let herself be hugged, but her brain was whirring and clicking like one of the Etheric machines, creating not happiness but only more trouble, more fear and confusion. What could she do? Should she try and persuade Mama to help her do what Holmforth wanted? What was it to them if the thing was used as a weapon in the Empire’s endless wars? She thought of Liu. The Empire had done dreadful things in his country – but so had the people who ran it, too. If she couldn’t, or wouldn’t, do what Holmforth wanted, what would happen to Mama? If she got thrown out of the school she would have to find somewhere safe for them both, but with what? If she stayed... perhaps she could persuade Holmforth to let her complete her training, at least.

  She pulled away. “Mama, I have to go, I daren’t be late to supper. I’ll bring you something. Lock yourself in, and don’t make a sound.” She gave her mother the key, and a quick kiss, and scurried away.

  It was a windy night; the old building creaked and moaned so that she stopped, at one point, convinced she’d heard footsteps along the corridor. No-one appeared, and she crept back to the main house, carefully locking the connecting door behind her.

  WHEN SHE PICKED up her supper fork, there was something beneath it – a tiny square of paper. She shuffled it into her pocket. When she got a moment, she investigated it further – it proved, as she suspected, to be a note.

  Meet me in the Old Barn, after supper. Liu.

  Easier said than done, she thought. At least supper tonight was chops. How she’d smuggle it to her mother when it was stew... she’d just have to get herself put on kitchen duty again.

  She asked Miss Cairngrim for permission to do extra work in the Old Barn. Miss Cairngrim glowered.

  “Mr Holmforth asked that I work especially hard on this project, Miss Cairngrim.”

  “I am aware of that
. However, this is disruptive of the school’s routine.”

  “Yes, Miss Cairngrim. Miss Cairngrim?”

  “What is it?”

  “He said if I do well he might give some money to the school.”

  “And why did he not tell me this himself?”

  “I don’t know as I oughta say, Miss Cairngrim.”

  “Tell me this instant!”

  “Well, he said he had a bet with one of the others that he could prove this school was useful, and not just a storage-house for by-blows. What’s a by-blow, Miss Cairngrim?”

  “That is a disgusting phrase and I do not wish to hear you repeat it!”

  “No, Miss Cairngrim.”

  “I will send for Thomas to chain the dogs, and I will escort you to the barn. You will be locked in. I will be back in one hour to let you out.”

  “Yes, Miss Cairngrim.”

  It was a bit of a risk, but she was fairly sure that Miss Cairngrim wouldn’t repeat that to Holmforth. In fact, she might be inclined to drop hints about how well Eveline was doing.

  Miss Cairngrim had no sooner locked the barn than Liu climbed swiftly down the ladder out of the hayloft.

  “Eveline! I am very glad you could come, I must discuss something with you.”

  “What is it, Liu?”

  “Is your mother well?”

  “Oh, I think so. At least... Oh, and thank you for the bedding.” He had scavenged, from somewhere, a decent mattress and some warm blankets for her.

  “Is something wrong? You are unhappy.”

  “I’m just worried. I hadn’t thought about things properly. They might send people to look for Mama, and they might work out it was me got her out, and... and now Mama don’t want me to work on this.” She gestured at the mechanisms, gleaming mellowly in the lamplight.

  “Oh. And what do you plan to do?”

  “I don’t know! I can’t exactly force her to help, can I? Not after everything she’s had to put up with. But if I don’t do what Holmforth wants, I’ll be out on me ear, and her with me, and maybe people after us both. Oh, it’s such a mess.” She slumped down on one of the ancient chairs and tugged her fingers through her hair, pulling out the pins. “What’m I to do?”

  “Do you know why your mother does not wish you to do this?”

  Eveline sighed. “She thinks this, Etherics, could maybe be used against people. She thinks that’s what Holmforth wants it for.”

  “I don’t know if it could be used against people, Lady Sparrow,” he said. “But it could be used against the Folk. And that... that would be very bad indeed.”

  “What?”

  “The Folk. The Shining Ones, the Fair Folk, the People of the Crepuscular.”

  “I know who the Folk are, Liu, I just don’t know what you’re gabbing on about. What d’you mean it could be used on ’em?”

  Liu dropped into the straw, folding his legs neatly under him. “Remember you asked me to distract Mister Holmforth for two hours the day we rescued your mother out of the hospital?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, I pretended to be someone interested in what he was doing in Shanghai. Someone in the government.”

  “And he believed you?”

  “I can be very persuasive.”

  “You musta been! Who did he think you were?”

  Liu shrugged. “Someone who appreciates his singular talents more than his current superior, a man called Forbes-Cresswell. But this is not really to the point. What is, is that this machine he has found creates noises of a very particular quality. They are painful and damaging to people... to Folk. That is why he wants you, Lady Sparrow. He wants you so that he can start a war.”

  “A war? A war with the Folk? But why? I thought he was half-Folk himself?”

  “He is.” Liu hesitated for a moment. “What would be your feeling on a war with the Folk, Lady Sparrow?”

  “I don’t know. It’s not my business, is it?”

  “It is if you can prevent it.”

  “Don’t see how.”

  “Refuse to do what Holmforth asks of you. It won’t be enough, it will only delay things, but perhaps it will give time for a solution to be found.”

  “If I don’t do what he wants, I’m done for. And so’s my mama.”

  “If you do, the consequences could be terrible.”

  “There’s always a war on somewhere. What’s it got to do with me?”

  “You do not care that people will be killed?”

  Eveline hunched her shoulders. “Course I care. I don’t want anyone dying. But it’s only a machine,” she said. “One machine. That’s hardly going to do much, is it? I mean, whatever it is he thinks it can do, even if I can get it to work, it’s one thing. All they have to do is break it, and there ain’t no problem, is there? It won’t be a war.”

  “Firstly, who do you think would be in the machine? You. You will be the immediate target of anything they do.”

  “In it? What do you mean, in it?” She gestured at the machines that stood on the bench. “I couldn’t get in one of them.”

  “This machine is much larger. It is operated by someone sitting within it. And even if you survive the encounter... it is much worse than that, Eveline.”

  “Why?”

  “They will know that it is possible. That humans can be a threat to them.”

  “What’s so bad about that?”

  “Oh, Lady Sparrow. You really have no idea. How do you think the Folk see you?”

  “I don’t know. Never thought about it.”

  “Yes, you have.”

  “Don’t know what you mean.”

  “Yes,” Liu said, “you do. I have seen the look in your eyes when they are named. You have no love for them, do you? Do you desire your own vengeance?”

  “I just want to be left alone. Get somewhere safe for me and Mama and be comfortable, no Folk, no Holmforth, no people messing in my life, that’s it.”

  “I do not believe you,” he said. “You would be bored in a week.”

  “Don’t matter what you believe.”

  “Perhaps not. But there are things I do not have to believe – things that I know. I know that if the Folk see humans as a threat, they will crush you. Completely, and without hesitation. You are little or nothing to them. A moment’s amusement. A source of Gifts, and entertainment – but that is all.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Why do you hate them, Eveline?”

  “I don’t hate them. Just don’t trust them, is all.”

  “And why is that?”

  “Not your business, is it?”

  “Please,” he said, and she looked at him, hearing real desperation in his voice. “Please listen to me, Lady Sparrow. Your distrust is justified far more than you think. They will destroy humanity if for one moment they see it as a threat. And they will unite to do it. The Folk of your country and the Folk of mine, of every land. This is the one thing that could create an alliance, after a thousand thousand years of rivalry, if only for a moment. And a moment is all they would need. Against such an alliance, your people would be dust on the wind.”

  “I don’t believe you. They don’t care about us one way or the other. They hardly even hang around any more.”

  “The noise of the cities, the factories, the airships – they find all this unpleasant, and they have no need to come here, unless it amuses them. But that will not stop them.”

  “Still don’t see how one machine could be a threat.”

  “Because it shows the potential. If humanity can create such a thing once, they can do it again. They would rather see every city on earth wiped out. And make no mistake, they could do it.”

  “How?”

  “They are very old, and very powerful. They have everything they need; they need never go hungry, never do without anything. That is why they have this game of Gifts. They give each other gifts of intense subtlety, it is a vast and complex game of position and superiority. That is the only place where humans truly ma
tter to them – as a source of these Gifts.” He tilted his head. “Of course, they might decide to keep you all alive for that – but the punishment they would wreak on you for daring to threaten them would be terrible. Now, you are toys. Pets. That is the best you can hope for.”

  “I don’t believe you. They’ve never done anything that bad. And we’re not pets.”

  “No? Would you have me prove it?”

  “How?”

  “I know of humans who are kept in the Crepuscular. Taken from here, usually as children. The court find them amusing, they even become fond of them, as you might of a puppy. But if the dog should bite, then it is punished. And if it bites too often...” He shuddered. “I have seen that, too. I could find one, bring them to see you.”

  Eveline bit her thumbnail, watching him. Could it be true? She had hated Aiden, all these years, because he had abandoned her when she truly needed him; had promised help, and failed to give it. Could that be why? That she was nothing more to him than an amusement?

  Perhaps. But she had a whole life at risk. She didn’t even know if this stupid machine could be made to work – especially without Mama’s help. If she simply refused to work on it... she could pretend, try her hardest, but she was fairly certain that Holmforth had no interest in her beyond this one thing.

  And of course, if she did make it work, there might be another thing. And another. And another...

  She flailed away from the thought. It was too much. Everything had been going well, and now it was all such a terrible mess.

  And there was something else, too.

  “How come you know so much about it?” she said. “Here you are telling me all this, and you could be lying through your teeth, f’r all I know. Could be so much bull, the whole thing. How’d you find out what Holmforth wants? No way he’s going to be spilling all that to some Chinee, just on his say so. So tell me how you know all this.”

  “I persuaded him that I was someone important in government. I told you. He is a desperate man. He believes that those in power are ignoring something important. He was grateful for anyone to listen.”

  “How?”

  “I was in disguise. You have done as much yourself – persuaded someone you are other than what you are – and it was not so hard for you.”