Shanghai Sparrow

by Gaie Sebold

  Unable to bear it a moment longer, she jumped to her feet.

  “Duchen, where do you think you’re going?” Miss Fortescue snapped.

  “I have to pack, miss.”

  “She does indeed,” said a familiar voice. Holmforth appeared behind her. She was very tired of people sneaking up on her, and felt strongly inclined to fling her shoe at him. This was all his fault. What did the wretched man have to pick her for?

  “I will come with you,” Holmforth said, “and assist.”

  Eveline stood up and took Holmforth’s proffered arm.

  She didn’t like being this close to him, especially not now. She sneaked glances at him, trying to trace any similarity to Liu – but then, Liu wasn’t English Folk. She’d never even heard of Folk who had fox tails. Oh, her mind was jumping about like a rabbit. She had to get away, do something.

  Up in the dormitory, a battered leather case was already lying on her bunk. She folded things much more carefully than was her habit, trying to give herself time to think, as Holmforth leaned in the doorway, watching.

  “Are you going to tell me about this machine, then? I can’t make it work unless I know what it’s s’posed to do.”

  “I suppose you are right. It has an effect on the Folk. An extremely... adverse effect. Oh, that reminds me, I must obtain a subject for the demonstration.”

  “A subject?”

  “Yes, one of the Folk, of course.”

  “Well, what if I can’t make it go straight off? I mean, it’s taken me weeks to get these machines here working!”

  “I am sure you will succeed. You must succeed. Someone is coming to attend the demonstration. If you do not succeed, the consequences will be... unfortunate. For you. And Miss Hastings.”

  So that was why he wanted Beth along. Leverage.

  “So who built this precious machine of yours?”

  “A man called Wu Jisheng. Etheric ability seems to cross racial boundaries.”

  “And what if he don’t want to give it to us?”

  “The machine is essential to the Empire. It is not as though the Chinese would make good use of it.”

  Well, that was answer enough, Eveline thought. Mr Wu Jisheng wasn’t going to have a choice, was he?

  “Oh,” she said. “My disguise kit? I might need it, mightn’t I, and my Bartitsu gear?”

  “Oh, I suppose so. Very well,” Holmforth said. “Go collect the costumery, if you must. I will obtain your fighting equipment – how very intriguing – and I will see you back here.”

  Eveline went to Miss Fortescue’s classroom and gathered an armful of supplies – a couple of wigs, putty, mortician’s wax, a few paints. She paused, an idea half-forming in her mind, and grabbed more putty. Then she scurried for the east wing.

  The wind in the empty corridors wailed like a ghost as the rain beat tiny cold fists on the windows. Eveline unlocked the door and whispered, “Mama?”

  The room was dark. “Mama, did you go to sleep?”

  “Your mother isn’t here, Eveline,” said a voice behind her.

  She spun about. Holmforth stood in the doorway, his face underlit by the lantern he was carrying, cutting shadows under his eyes and cheekbones.

  Eveline felt cold all the way through, and her knees weakened. “I...”

  “Don’t bother. It would be foolish to attempt, at this juncture, to hide anything. She is in no danger. Rather less than she might have been had she remained here. I don’t suppose it ever occurred to you that there might be a fire, or some such thing? No? Really, child.”

  “How did you find her?” Eveline said, her voice seeming to come from far away, as though another Eveline, a puppet, moved and spoke in her stead.

  “Monsieur Duvalier has been taking an interest in your movements, it seems. And fortunately he had the sense to come to me, rather than going to Miss Cairngrim.”

  “Duvalier.”

  “Indeed. Now come along.”

  “But where is she? What have you done with her?”

  “She is safe, and away from here.” That must have been the coach she heard earlier, and she hadn’t even paid attention. “And I have done nothing to her. Had I known she was alive, of course, I would have taken her under my wing much earlier, and she would have enjoyed rather more comfortable accommodations. In any case, she is about to accompany us to Shanghai. I think, after her long incarceration, she may enjoy the experience, don’t you?”

  Eveline felt so cold. Cold and small and stupid. How had she let things come to this?

  And Holmforth had her mama. She’d been right about him. He’d use anything and everything for his precious Empire. Even if she didn’t believe Liu, there was no way, now, no way in the Empire and all its territories that she was going to do what Holmforth wanted.

  He’d thought he could run her to ground. But she wasn’t a rabbit. She was Evvie Duchen, and she’d see him pay heavy for this.

  THAT NIGHT, NEITHER she nor Beth returned to the dormitory. They were locked in a separate room, normally kept for visitors.

  “I’m sorry about your mama,” Beth said as they got ready for bed.

  “I’m sorry I got you into this.”

  “Don’t be,” Beth said. “At least I get to go on an airship, and see Shanghai.”

  “Beth, I’ve made such a mess of everything. I shoulda told Holmforth straight out I couldn’t do a thing with these wretched machines, and now you’re caught up in it, and my mum, and I don’t know what Liu’s about... I don’t want a war, I mean, I don’t care about the Folk, but what if Liu’s right, and...”

  “Right about what?”

  “Oh, I didn’t tell you that part, did I?”

  “Not really.”

  After Eveline explained, Beth sat quietly for some time. “I don’t know, Evvie,” she said. “But a war... people are going to get killed. That’s what war is, isn’t it. Whoever wins, people get killed.”

  “And if Liu’s right – I’m not saying he is, but if he is...”

  “Oh, dear,” Beth said.

  “Oh, dear is right.”

  Eveline still had her lock picks. She contemplated letting them both out, but had not a single idea what was to be done after that; with no idea where Mama was, and no way to find her now Liu had disappeared – how had she come to rely on him, on his help, so quickly? How had she been so stupid, again?

  Probably the girl wasn’t even Charlotte. It had all been yet another trick. After all, he was Folk, wasn’t he? He could probably do all sorts of tricks. Why should he care what happened to people, if the Folk got angry? She didn’t believe it.

  And yet he was only half-Folk. But so was Holmforth.

  And Holmforth was the one she had to deal with. There was no time to panic, she had to think as hard as she’d ever thought in her life.

  And, reluctantly, thinking about Liu. Liu and the Folk. The Folk and their Gifts...

  She should have guessed, when he spoke to her before about them. How else could he possibly have known so much? Unless all that, too, was lies.

  Why had he brought Charlotte? Why?

  Eveline Duchen, stop this nonsense. ‘Keep your thoughts on the job in hand or stuck in pokey you will land’; that was one of Ma’s, and right she was.

  And it is a job, isn’t it? It’s a con. It has to be.

  She really wished she could see Liu and shake a proper explanation out of him.

  At the thought, she turned over, and felt a lump rub against her side.

  It was the little jade fox tucked into one of the secret pockets of her shift. She sat up and dug it out. It was smooth and warm in the darkness. She could feel its sharp nose and the curve of its tail. A fox.

  Had he meant her to guess?

  “How was I supposed to know?” she whispered at it. “We don’t have fox-spirits where I come from. And he shoulda just told me, anyway. Why’d he have to go and be such a... and bringing Charlotte back, like she was. Better we’d never seen her. Except... all right. I’m glad she’
s alive. I am. But he shoulda told me. Except I’d probably have told him to bugger off. You want my troubles, Mr Fox? I got to make this stupid machine work for Holmforth, only if I do it’ll start a war, and if I don’t he’ll do for my mama, and me, and maybe Beth as well. And I don’t know how to get it working, and I can’t ask Mama because Holmforth don’t realise she’s the only one who could probably help, ’cos he thinks it was all stupid Uncle James. And she wouldn’t anyway, because she never wanted it used for anything bad, and starting a war, well, that’s pretty bad.

  “I don’t know anything about the Folk, I don’t know how they think. Liu does. All that about Gifts and how they work – makes no sense to me, but...” She stopped, and stared at the fox, or rather the place in the dark where the fox was.

  Beth turned over in her narrow bed. “Eveline?”

  “Sorry, Beth, did I wake you?”

  “No. Are you all right?”

  “I’m thinking.” She sat up, the jade fox clutched in one hand, letting her mind run free. Treadwell.

  They’d needed Treadwell to prove she could work her mother’s machines. To prove the machine worked on Folk, Holmforth would need...

  Holmforth would need one of the Folk.

  “Beth, I’ve got an idea. I dunno if it’ll work, but...”

  “Tell me.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. Maybe I’ll think of something.”

  “You do machines,” Eveline said. She sat up. “We’ve got a machine. We’ve got Lazy Lou.”

  “Oh, yes, Lazy Lou... I’ve been, well, making some adjustments.”

  “Have you indeed? Thing is, we need the other Liu.”

  “How very gratifying. Would you like me to let you out?” Liu’s face at the window, hanging upside down.

  Beth yelped with surprise. “How did you get there?”

  “I thought perhaps you might need some assistance.”

  “You two met?” Eveline said.

  “Shall we regard this as an introduction?” Liu said, swinging around so that he was the right way up. He had his hands wrapped around the bars and his feet braced against the wall below, looking remarkably at ease. “What is it you need of me?”

  “Lazy Lou. Can you get her here? She’s mostly in bits.”

  “That should not present a difficulty”

  “How are we going to get her on board?” Beth said.

  “They’ve given us these fancy clothes for travelling,” Eveline said. “I got my stitching stuff. You?”

  “Yes.”

  “Right. And we need your tools. From the Old Barn.”

  “Tools. The mannequin. Anything else?” Liu said.

  “Yes,” Eveline said. “You. If you’re willing. ’Srisky, and you might get hurt.”

  He cocked his head. “You have decided to trust me?”

  “You make a munge of this, and that war you’re so feared of is probably going to happen, so...”

  “You think you can prevent it.”

  “Maybe. But I got to fool everyone long enough for it to work, and I need you for that.”

  “Oh, my Lady Sparrow,” Liu said. “I am at your service. One should never miss the chance to learn.”

  “What do you mean?” Evvie said.

  “I have certain advantages because of my birth. You, however, without my means, manage to change most convincingly for every circumstance. With your mother, you are a respectable young lady. Others see an innocent, or a rogue...”

  “And what do you see?” Evvie raised her chin.

  “An artist,” he said, and managed, still clinging on to the window with one hand, a remarkably elegant bow.

  A few moments later he was gone.

  Eveline caught Beth looking at her.

  “What?”

  “You looked, the two of you...”

  “We looked what?”

  “You looked like two of a kind,” Beth said. “You’re enjoying this, both of you.”

  “No! What, with my mama in danger and you...”

  “I don’t mean that part. But the thought of fooling Holmforth... and whoever else... you had exactly the same expression.”

  “He’s a bloody...”

  “Folk? Evvie... he can’t help that. I think he’s all right.”

  “He’s all we’ve got, that’s the thing. I still don’t know if he’s to be trusted.”

  “I know. But Eveline...” In the darkness, Eveline felt Beth clasp her hand. A small hand, callused with work, warm. “I am.”

  Airborne

  THE GLORIANA, HUGE, magnificent, loomed in the vast cave of the hangar. Figures crawled about it like tiny monkeys. A great train of baggage trundled towards it, the carts pulled by porters uniformed in blue and gold.

  Eveline had never seen it on the ground before, only in the air. It seemed much bigger, this close; a great silvery whale of a thing, the fragile gilded gondola of the passenger section dwarfed by the vast swell of the balloon.

  “Our luggage is already on board,” Holmforth said. “Now, ladies, if you please?”

  “Where is Mama?” Eveline hissed.

  “I arranged for her to be escorted on board separately.” Holmforth ushered them forwards.

  They walked up the gangplank. The bag loomed out above their heads. Eveline saw Beth looking at it all, wide-eyed as a child, and felt a trickle of envy. She might be in danger – although Eveline was fairly sure that Beth had no idea what Holmforth was really like – but she could still enjoy herself.

  Of course, Beth didn’t have her mother imprisoned somewhere on board this contraption. And she actually liked the idea of flying.

  And to think I once thought what a prize the Gloriana would be, Eveline thought to herself. Her stomach had contracted to a small hard knot.

  Inside, it was positively luxurious, in a strange, airy way. The fittings were very fine, but all of light pale wood and metal, looking – to Eveline’s eye – as though they would snap if you breathed on them. They passed by a bar and a smoking room, all done out in that same strange, airy style. “Oh, it’s all for the weight, isn’t it?” Beth said.

  Holmforth only said, “Come along, don’t dawdle.”

  Everywhere were fine clothes and posh voices. Eveline saw two Chinese men, in navy topcoats and stovepipe hats, both middle-aged, standing alone in a small pool of silence, as the crowd flowed and jabbered around them.

  Holmforth hastened the girls through the chattering throng and installed them in a cabin with two small beds, a built-in dresser with a basin of hot water steaming on the stand and a small window. “I am going to take the precaution of locking you in,” he said. “Just in case you should be feeling adventurous.”

  Beth’s face fell. “Oh, I hoped I might see the engines. Or... well, anything.”

  “Perhaps another time.” He walked to the window, peered out, and then turned, clasping his hands behind his back and looking at them solemnly. “You are involved in something very important. Far more important than you, or I, or any one individual. I can permit nothing to get in the way. Please understand, Miss Duchen, that I would not have involved your mother, except that I am not convinced you will fully appreciate the significance of what I will ask of you. Personal desires, personal feelings, should be as nothing, but...” He sighed. “Really this is not the sort of thing that should be on the shoulders of a woman, especially one so young, and without even the benefit of a proper upbringing. Had I any other choice... but you, Miss Duchen, you can be part of something so much greater than yourself. Endeavour to understand that. In the meantime, make yourselves comfortable. I am in the cabin next to you” – he tapped the wall – “should you need anything.”

  He went out, locking the door. The girls looked at each other.

  “He still hasn’t told you what he wants you to do, or what it’s for,” Beth said. “Has he?”

  “I s’pose he’s afraid I might gab. He doesn’t know...” She glanced at the partition wall and lowered her voice. “He doesn’t
know that I know everything, except what I actually bloody need to, like how to make it work.”

  “Would you? If you could?”

  “Oh, I don’t know.” Eveline scowled at the floor. “For all I know, this stupid machine don’t do anything anyway, and Holmforth’s madder’n a ripe cheese, not to mention Liu. Maybe someone’s been fooling the lot of ’em. Maybe it’s a magician like that Chung Ling Soo, I saw him once. Anyway we got to get there first. How high do these things go? No,” she said, as Beth drew breath to speak. “Don’t tell me. I hope my mama’s all right.”

  “Are you feeling quite well?”

  “No,” she said. “Oh, it moved!”

  Beth ran to the window. “They’re taking us out!”

  Eveline huddled on the bed, and buried her face in the fine linen sheets. “I don’t wanta know.”

  There were thumps and bumps and shifts and shouts, the burbling hum of engines and a sudden, strange, lifting sensation, accompanied by cheers she could hear right through the walls. Eveline clutched the sheets tighter and squinched her eyes shut. Beth gasped. Eveline pulled the sheets over her head.

  “Oh, do look!” Beth said. “Oh, it’s wonderful, Eveline, do look!”

  Eveline uncovered half an eye. The cabin was lighter. Beth stood at the window, gripping her hands together, her face lit with delight. “I can see everything!”

  “Like what?”

  “Clouds! I never knew – gosh, London’s really dirty. It looks as though there’s a filthy grey blanket over it. I can just about see the river. Don’t you want to see?”

  “No.”

  Beth pressed the side of her face against the glass. “Oh, I can’t see the engines at all. Maybe I’ll get a chance later... Oh, look! Eveline, we’re in a cloud! Did you ever think of such a thing?”

  “No, and I never wanted to. Just tell me when we’ve landed safe.”

  “That’ll be hours yet, and we’ll have to stop partway and refuel anyway. You’re not going to even look?”

  “No.”

  Having nothing to do, and nothing to look at but the walls, gave free rein to Eveline’s grinding anxiety. She clutched the sheets so hard her hands hurt, and the knot in her stomach only got smaller and tighter and harder.