by S. S. Engle
“I asked.”
“I asked too.”
“Maybe I’m just more persuasive.”
“You’re curvier, not more persuasive.”
“I doubt my curves had anything to do with it.”
“Did a man give you my arm?”
“Yes.”
“Then your curves had something to do with it. And how about those keys? How’d you get your hands on those?”
“I guess I’m just a hugger by nature.”
“Sure you are. You act quick, I gotta hand you that.”
“You’re pretty quick yourself. Last I saw you you were a free man. What happened last night?”
“The Fox ambushed me with eight or nine Ringers. I couldn’t really get an accurate count, I was a little busy fighting for my life. They took my arm off pretty quick because they knew they couldn’t beat me in a fair fight, even with their numbers. I wasn’t about to let them run off with it.”
“So what did you do?”
“I shot at least six of them, but the rest got away.”
“Why?”
“Ran out of bullets.”
“Hard to believe you’re a single man. You sound like such a catch.”
“I just haven’t found my right breed of psycho yet.”
“So who’s this Fox?”
“That Ringer that gave you trouble in the alley. His name is Silas Foley, but we call him the Fox.”
“The one in all black, with red hair and freckles?”
“That’s the one.”
“He’s an asshole. I caught him following me last night in the shadows on my way to the hotel.”
“You sure it was him?”
“Yes. I never forget an asshole. Why do they call him the Fox?”
“His orange hair for starters, but he’s always slinking around in the dark doing Asa’s bidding. My best guess is Natasha got to talking last night in some drunken stupor no doubt and told Asa I was there.”
“Then she probably told him about me too.”
“I wouldn’t put it past her, she’s a dirty Harlot.”
“A what now?”
“It’s Asa’s gang exclusively for women. Natasha is in charge of it. They work on their backs and kill with their hands. He’s got the most gorgeous women in all of Engia working for him. I think that’s what the Fox thought you were the other day in the alley, and that’s why he wouldn’t leave you alone. I have to admit it was an honest mistake.”
“Too much has changed here since I‘ve been gone.”
“Not everything has changed.”
“The leader of the Dreadcranks is in prison. That would have never happened to my father.”
“No, he was a far better man than I, with far more honor. But I value my life more than he did. It was jail or death, call me petty but I chose jail. To be the leader of a gang in Engia is to wear a joker’s crown.”
“It never used to be that way.”
“Doesn’t matter how things used to be. What matters is how things are now. And right now I can’t go back to headquarters because the inspectors will be waiting for me there.”
“You need a place to go then?”
“You have a place?”
“I do.”
“Great! Where is it?”
“Someplace I’d prefer not to indulge inside these walls.”
“Right. But before we get going can I get you to help me with this? I can’t ever get my arm back on by myself.”
Kassidy stepped forward, picking up the keys again and sat beside Luca on the cot. She had no idea what she was doing, but he walked her through the reattachment process. His arm was completely severed, there wasn’t even a shoulder left anymore. But the wound happened years ago by the scarring she could see. A metal bracket was stuck into this skin deep, and after linking the gears back into place the arm pretty much did the work for her. He shoved it into the wall with all of his body weight just to get the fit perfect, and with a crooked smile he nodded towards the door. Kassidy opened it up slowly, peaked her head out into the hall, and once she saw it was clear they left. She was careful to lock the door behind her to try and give them some extra time before anyone realized Luca was missing. Seeing as how she broke into the jail, they were both relying on her knowledge of the halls to get them back out just as safely, but she wasn’t as confident in her abilities as he was. They ended up making two wrong turns, and looped themselves back to where the jailers met up for coffee breaks. A man spotted Kassidy and pointed out to her, breaking out in a full run with a steam gun pointed directly at her. Without thinking she dropped herself to the ground, kicked Luca’s feet out from under him so he was down too, and tripped the jailer up as soon as he got close enough. The gun went sprawling across the floor, but Kassidy reached it first and placed it firmly on the jailer’s temple.
“You saw nothing.”
“Give me back my gun! That’s a criminal…”
“You…saw…nothing.”
“I saw nothing. What am I going to tell the others?”
“Just tell them I hit you.”
Kassidy stepped back with the steam gun, and in one hand proceeded to dismantle it. She unhooked the gear connecting the water canister and dropped it to the ground first, splashing it all over the place. Then the glass tubing that funneled the steam out shattered next. Glass sprayed out everywhere around the jailer, effectively pinning him on the ground and forced to wait for help because he was too scared and shocked to do anything else. With a few more flicks of her wrist more gears and springs came popping out, the trigger was the last piece to fall before Luca pulled on Kassidy’s shoulder to get her to pull herself away from the growing scene. They found a door to the factory and ran through the back into an alley that overlooked the railroad tracks. Kassidy climbed up the hill and began walking for home, the tracks would take her right where she needed to go and staying off the streets right now was her safest bet. Luca was still trying to grasp just exactly what had happened, he’d been sprung from jail by a woman he hadn’t seen in seventeen years up until two days ago. And now she was just walking up on the railroad tracks as if nothing had even happened. He shook his head staring at the ground with a smile on his face until she cleared her throat waiting for him to join her.
“You’re psychotic!”
“I am not! I just don’t fancy being locked up is all.”
“Neither do I. That was amazing back there, what you did with the gun by the way. You took it apart with one hand! Where’d you learn to do that?”
“I’ve been away for seventeen years. I had to learn how to do something in my spare time. Why not let it be something useful.”
“So, where are we off to?”
“My place.”
“Which is?”
“About an hour’s walk from here if we keep toddling at the pace we’re at.”
“We’ll be caught before an hour if we’re not inside someplace.”
“I thought you weren’t going to underestimate me anymore? You said you couldn’t go back to headquarters, wherever that is, so unless you have someplace else to go that’ll be willing to harbor a fugitive and gang leader then be my guest, go, but I’m going home.”
“Then I’m coming with you. I’d just like to know where home is.”
“For the leader of a gang you’re not much of a risk taker are you?”
“Taking risks cost me the flesh on my right hand and the loss of my entire left arm. So no, I’m not much of a risk taker. I like to better calculate my maneuvers now.”
“Where’s the fun in that?”
“There’s no fun, but at least I stay alive.”
“That’s surviving, not living. There’s a difference. Look at it this way Luca…”
“It’s Lucky.”
“I’m calling you Luca.”
“Nobody’s ever called me Luca but my mother.”
“Your mother and me, now as I was saying…”
“Call me Lucky.”
“You c
all me sweetheart instead of Kassidy. I never told you my name but you found it out anyways. Now I’m formally telling you I am Kassidy von Detten. So what are you going to call me?”
“Sweetheart.”
“Now tell me something Luca, when you look back on your life in fifty years don’t you want to be able to say that you were willing to take a few risks and take down the worst thing that’s ever happened to Engia?”
“And what’s the worst thing to ever happen to Engia?”
“Asa O’Brien.”
5
Kassidy and Luca arrived at the old royal palace without any trouble. She was smug on that note, proving the railroad was a safe way to walk after all. With the palace located in the far corner of the city, the most untraveled section, Luca wasn’t too familiar with the area. But with the palace up on a hill as it was, it was hard to hide where they were headed once they got close enough. A set of old brick steps led up to the front door, but they wouldn’t be going in that way. Kassidy led Luca around to the back entrance she used, and was careful to keep their footprints down to a minimum in the dirt. Kassidy had to drag Luca around by the hand like a toddler because he was too in awe of where he was right now. Supposedly the palace had
been abandoned for years since the O’Brien’s took over. City rumors and gossip led to the perpetuation the place was haunted by the murdered former king. Kassidy was fine with that because she knew none of it was true, the place was certainly not haunted, but she liked her privacy.
On the outside of the palace there were golden gilded flames atop the roof, an ode to the volcano that powered the entire city. A broken clock perched high above the front doors reading the infinite time of 10:17. It was modest for a palace at only three stories tall, but it was expansive on the inside with rooms upon rooms to spare and a lengthy basement that ran underground into the hill. Kassidy had only been down there once, smelled the stale air and decided to just not to unless she had to. So far thankfully, she didn’t have to go down there again. She spent virtually all of her time reading books in her library, and catching up on things she might have overlooked as a child in Engia. Carting Luca behind her he wanted to stop and take a look at every room, but they didn’t have time for that. He just needed to burn the rest of the day and night until he could go back to headquarters in the morning.
Kassidy’s crowning glory came when she unlocked the doors to the library. A gran d double door entrance with heavy wooden doors painted in dark red paint and carved with elaborate swirls and flames. It was a two story room, the only one she had uncovered so far. It had wall to wall
bookshelves packed with every kind of book imaginable. A collection no doubt built for hundreds of years. She had a few couches in here pulled from other rooms, and a reading chair up on the top floor placed in front of a window with a loose board. It gave her a chance to survey the outside should she choose, but mostly she didn’t. A spiral staircase was her favorite feature, for Luca he wasn’t as graceful coming up and down, but he put a smile on for Kassidy’s benefit at least. This library was far greater quarters to keep than a jail cell. Beside her desk Luca noticed a stack of books propped open to various pages, and notes and papers scattered all around the desktop. Kassidy anxiously ran over and snapped half the books closed, and shut the drawers, placing herself between Luca and her mess.
“I was just doing research.”
“On what?”
“A little bit of everything.”
“You’ve got a lot of books in here.”
“I have very poor social skills.”
“Me too. So the royal palace huh? I have to admit, you never cease to amaze me. When you said you had a place I never thought you’d be walking me into the royal palace. I’ve looked at this place for years and never thought I’d get the chance to see what it looked like on the inside.”
“Well, here it is. Is it what you thought it would be like?”
“A little. I guess as a kid it just seemed so much more, I don’t know, untouchable. When the clouds rolled in off the ocean on foggy mornings it looked like it was floating above the world. Sorry, I bet that sounds ridiculous.”
“No, I’ve heard worse.”
“So have you walked the entire grounds yet?”
“Most of it.”
“It’s the whole deal right?”
“If you’re asking what I think you are then I should warn you the treasury was raided years ago.”
“Shame.”
“I have enough money to get by for now. And when I run out I know where there’s plenty more.”
“I heard somebody raided the O’Brien’s place. That was you?”
“Guilty.”
“I’ve been trying to get my guys in there for years.”
“That’s the problem.”
“What is?”
“You sent guys.”
“So tell me sweetheart, a woman like you must have a lover or two pining away for you wherever it is you came from. I have a hard time believing you’re unattached.”
“Well believe it. No man is delusional enough to want to stay with me for any amount of time. And what about you? Leader of the Dreadcranks. That’s got to be good for something isn’t it? I bet you have a line of girls trailing out of headquarters for you.”
“I’ve got admirers by the hundreds I’m sure, but none worthy of earning the title of my wife.”
“You’ve got high standards then. I would have thought you had exes all over this town. Guess it’s true what they say. You can’t judge a book by it’s cover.”
“If you were a book I would read you just because of your cover.”
“That has got to be the worst line I’ve ever heard!”
“So why are you blushing?”
“For your sake, I assure you. Besides, I don’t peg you as being a heavy reader. Where would you get the time?”
“I don’t read much, it’s true, but I do read some things.”
“Like what? I’ve got a little something of everything in here I’m sure. You’re more than welcome to help yourself if you find something you like. Help pass the time until you can go back to headquarters safely.”
“What do you like to read?”
“Antiques, histories, classics, things of that nature.”
“Geez!”
“What? Do you have a problem with a well educated woman?”
“I’m smart enough to say no. So what’s with the couches in here? Do you sleep here?”
“Yes. It’s an interior room except for the top floor. I like the safety feature. Plus I like the smell of old books. Weird I know, but there’s something about it that just calms me down.”
“That effectively makes this your bedroom then.”
“I suppose so.”
“That’s odd.”
“What is?”
“Normally I prefer to do more enjoyable things when a woman brings me to her bedroom.”
“I’m sorry, but is reading not enjoyable?”
“I meant…”
“I know what you meant. Maybe you’ve just never read the right book?”
“Maybe you’ve never been with the right man?”
“Are you trying to suggest you could be the right man for me?”
“I’m willing to take one for the team and find out.”
“Well I’m not so willing, so unless you make close personal friends with one of these books you’ll be awfully lonely tonight.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time.”
“Good, then you’ll find some extra blankets in the hall just outside the door there. You can take the long couch, I’ll move my stuff over to the short one.”
Luca busied himself with getting lost in the hidden doors in the hallway. Kassidy was moving her couch further away from the other one, creating some distance for herself and the Dreadcrank leader. After that was done she finished putting things away on her desk in case a set of wandering eyes found her research again. She was deep in drawers and folding diag
rams sprawled around her on the floor when Luca came back inside with a heaping pile of blankets. He had enough for six people and she couldn’t help but laugh. They were stacked high in front of him, causing him to trip on the wooden support pole of the spiral staircase and trip him up. Soon he was cursing the staircase out and Kassidy erupted in full out laughter at his clumsiness. He wasn’t as amused until he sat up and realized they were sitting on the floor together, in quite close proximity, with pages and blankets in all matter of disarray. Kassidy moved first, tucking herself back into the desk and quickly gathering her papers up to put them away. She bit her bottom lip to hold her smile from growing, but Luca was happy that it wasn‘t working. He pulled the blankets up now and began assembling his bed. It was quite an elaborate production. Kassidy took in the sights from across the table on her own couch, a simple blanket slung over the back was all she required.