Ancient Appetites

by Oisin McGann

  As he opened the door to the stall, he was surprised to find the velocycle was not alone. One of the stable boys was asleep next to it, hugging its front wheel. Flash greeted Nate with a friendly grunt and turned towards him, waking the lad. Blinking his encrusted eyes, the boy took a moment to register Nathaniel's presence. He gaped in shock, jumped to his feet and whipped off his hat, knuckling his forehead.

  'I'm sorry, sir!' he blurted out. 'I was just-'

  'Shhh!' Nate whispered, holding up his hand, forgetting that he was still holding his firearm.

  The boy started to shake. Nate looked at the gun and then put it in his pocket.

  'It's all right, I'm not going to hurt you,' he reassured the lad. 'I need you to be quiet though, you understand me? You're… I've never seen anyone so comfortable with this beast. You must be good with engimals. What's your name?'

  'Francie, sir. I mean… Francis Noonan, sir.'

  Noonan. Nate tried to remember where he had heard that name before – and then it came to him.

  'You're related to Séamas Noonan?'

  The boy didn't answer at first, but his hesitation was enough to give him away.

  'He's me father,' he admitted at last.

  Nate leaned back against the door. Suddenly, things started to make a little more sense.

  'Saddle it up… quietly,' he said, gesturing at Flash. 'I'm leaving here and I don't want anyone to know it. And you're coming with me. You're going to take me to your rebel friends.'

  It did not surprise Nate that Francie knew how to lead Flash with its eyes dimmed, without making any noise, and that he knew the path through the woods to the forest road. After all, he had stolen the velocycle once before. What did surprise him was that the rebels would recruit such a young agent. They must be a cold-blooded lot indeed. But once Francie knew the game was up, he wasted no time in telling the full story, in a desperate attempt to convince this gent that Shay Noonan was neither a rebel nor a murderer.

  'You blew up the cemetery because you were trying to rob us?' Nate asked in a low voice, his disbelief evident.

  'They were just tryin' to blow through the wall,' Francie explained. 'They thought there was a treasury on the other side. They didn't know about the powder store.'

  So much for the Duke's theories about a criminal mastermind, Nate thought.

  'But what about your attack on my brother? You left a bloody note!'

  'I was just nickin' the engimal, sir!' Francie protested softly. 'Da just wrote the note to put the wind up yez. I wasn't even goin' to leave it except I ran into Master Roberto and dropped it by mistake when I fell off.'

  'Bloody hell,' Nate sighed. 'All this mayhem because a few petty thieves were trying to steal some gold. So you're definitely not rebels?'

  Francie shook his head vigorously, his eyes ever watchful for a chance to make a break for it. He wasn't sure why Nathaniel was being so sneaky about wandering around his own grounds, but there could be no doubt that Francie was well and truly scuppered. He was probably too young to be hanged, but there was plenty of space in Kilmainham Gaol for the likes of him.

  When they were a little way into the forest, Nate climbed into Flash's saddle and had Francie get on behind. With Flash still suppressing the sound of its engine, they rode through the forest towards the wall that surrounded the estate. Francie felt the thrill of the ride again, relishing the engimals raw power.

  It took less than ten minutes to reach the wall, and then they stopped.

  'There's a culvert off to the right,' Francie said. 'You'd have to get wet, sir, and Flash would have to be pushed through on its side-'

  'Nonsense,' Nate declared. 'We're going to jump it.'

  He steered the velocycle round until they were about thirty yards back from a grass bank that lay in front of the wall. Nate knew his beast's agility could make a ramp of that hillock and the ground on the other side was clear enough for a landing.

  'I don't know if this is such a good idea, sir,' Francie whispered nervously. 'This thing's a contrary craythur at the best of times.'

  'Just hold on,' Nate told him, and kicked his heels into the velocycle's sides.

  Flash reared and its eyes flashed bright, its engine raised in a roar. They hurtled forward, gathering speed at a tremendous rate. The beams of Flash's eyes picked out the stone wall and then the ramp… and then the wall again. Nate felt the engine falter.

  'No-' he managed, before Flash slowed as they hit the ramp and then came to an abrupt halt, hurling the two riders over the wall.

  The ground struck with a shocking suddenness in the darkness. Nate found himself sprawled in the long grass, unable to see where he was and in too much pain to find out. He could hear Francie giving wheezing cries a few feet away. And then he heard someone else shouting.

  Sentries had been alerted by the noise and the lights. Did they know there had been a change in power? Were they Hugo's men now? There was no way to be sure. Nate heard two voices, possibly three. He lay still in the grass, trying to discern where they were coming from. Turning his face to the ground, he detected running feet approaching from his right. He felt for his pistol, still in his jacket. Falling on it had left a nasty bruise under his ribs, and he winced as he drew it from his pocket. A man came hurrying through the grass and was almost on top of him when Nate sprang up and whipped the butt of the gun across the side of his head. The man flipped onto his back and hit the ground with barely a grunt.

  Grabbing Francie's arm, Nate pulled him onto his feet.

  'Come on,' he hissed. 'That blasted beast has shafted us good and proper. We have to get out of here.'

  'But… but why are yeh runnin' from yer own family?' Francie gasped as he hobbled after Nate on wobbly legs.

  'That's a bloody good question,' Nate replied.

  *

  The zoological gardens where the Wildensterns kept their menagerie of exotic wildlife – including their collection of untameable engimals – was a bizarre place in daylight, but at night-time it was positively eerie.

  Some footmen had gone ahead to light the gas-lamps along the walkway, but the place had not been built to visit at night and the widely spaced lamps gave a meagre light; they still needed two of the footmen to guide the way with lanterns. The enclosures loomed over them in all shapes and sizes, from closed-off sheds to fenced pens to ridiculously ornate cages. Daisy let herself be led on Hugo's arm, willing to play along until an opportunity to escape presented itself. And if one didn't, she was determined to concoct one.

  They were accompanied by Elizabeth, Brunhilde and Gideon. As they stepped through the tall cast-iron gates of the zoo, Elizabeth gasped in delight at the shadowy beasts around them. Brunhilde began scurrying from one to the next, chattering, grunting and panting as if she were trying to communicate with the creatures. The woman had no class whatsoever.

  'The smaller creatures are kept here,' Gideon explained as they strolled down the walkway. 'Wild mowers, a few breeds of snake-chain, some miniature cranes… you get the idea. Down by the canal are the larger engimals, including the ones that require moats, like Trom. Although none of them have been tamed like Trom, of course.'

  'Let us see the most magnificent first,' Hugo said.

  Gideon nodded and led them through the avenue of dark buildings. They heard an array of noises emitted by the restless engimals: clanking, clacking, whirring, ticking, whistling and any number of other faint sounds. Hugo and his sisters listened with interest. They must have seen enough engimals in their time, but Daisy knew there would have been nothing like the Wildenstern Zoological Gardens in their century.

  But they could see very little without lighting each enclosure individually, so they walked on as Hugo had requested, to see the most magnificent first. As they strolled arm in arm, Hugo would rub Daisy's arm against his side and she could feel the hard links of the chain mail beneath his jacket. Sometimes he stroked her fingers. His touch made her skin crawl and she was glad that the diameter of her crinoline kept him a good two
feet away. Every now and then he gave her a smile that she supposed was meant to be charming, but merely made him look like the depraved old man that he was.

  As they moved along the path, they passed an enormous bronze birdcage. There was a faint white glow emitting from it. Elizabeth stopped to peer inside and even Daisy turned to look. She hadn't seen the leaf-lights in darkness for some time. Roberto had taken her here at night, during their first year of marriage, for one of his well-orchestrated romantic evenings.

  Daisy wondered bitterly if he had ever taken Old Hennessy to the zoo.

  There was a thick pane of glass between each intricately shaped bar of the cage, forming a solid dome.

  'I saw creatures like these once,' Elizabeth whispered in a sensuous voice. 'On a campaign in France. Do you remember, Hugo? They flew past my tent one night when we camped in a forest.'

  The leaf-lights lay on the floor of the cage. It appeared as if someone had taken a ream of paper – of sheets about six inches square – and cast them across the boards. But these sheets of paper glowed, and as the people approached the glass, the creatures floated up into the air and fluttered in a rustling cloud towards their visitors.

  Elizabeth put her hand to the glass, but it was the servants holding the lanterns who interested the engimals. They drank light; during the day they basked in the sun and in the evening they took to the sky in wild and meaningless dances. They danced now, whirling in a dizzying display of agility. Elizabeth clapped her hands and Brunhilde pointed and laughed.

  'We didn't come here to look for toys,' Hugo said after a few minutes.

  'Yes,' Gideon replied, making a big hand gesture so that his rings caught the light. 'You wanted something magnificent. Come this way. I don't think you'll be disappointed.'

  The most magnificent engimal was a behemoth even larger than Trom. It was an eight-wheeled juggernaut, brought all the way from North America, where it had roamed the endless plains of the midwest. Now it was held in an enclosure of little more than three acres; it would spend days and nights rolling around the perimeter one way and then the other, tirelessly searching for a way out. Its body was black, gold and purple, with a narrow sloping tail and a huge muscular torso shaped like a tightly clasped fist with two thumbs. It was scarred along its front and sides from territorial battles. But its fighting days were over. Now it stood listlessly at its water trough, sucking up water.

  'This is Colossus,' Gideon announced proudly as they stopped at the railing to peer across the moat at the gloomy scene. 'It is the mightiest, most untameable monster this side of the world. You would have to go to Africa, or even Asia to find its match.'

  'Indeed.' Hugo stared across the moat with a faint smile on his face.

  There was a raised pier that ran out over the stonewalled moat, so that visitors could look down on the engimal from above. Hugo let go of Daisy's arm and ran up the steps and along the length of the walkway to the end. He stood there, his tall, upright figure silhouetted against the sky, the lanterns casting a faint light from below. The others followed him up more slowly, and Daisy felt a sense of foreboding come over her as she came up the last few steps and saw the new Patriarch leaning over the railing, a look of wonder on his face.

  There was a knife in his right hand, and as they watched, he pressed the tip into his left palm. Blood welled forth, looking almost black in the dim light. Hugo held his wounded hand out over the railing and squeezed it into a fist. Daisy reached the rail and looked over in time to see a few drops of blood fall into the darkness below. She could just see the outline of the water trough below the brow of Colossus. Hugo was feeding the creature his blood. The engimal stopped drinking and sniffed. Steam drifted up from its nostrils. Then its eyes blazed with a blue light and it backed away from the trough, snorting warily.

  'Untameable, you say?' Hugo asked Gideon.

  'Irredeemably savage,' Gideon replied. 'We would all be dead were it not for this moat.'

  Hugo jumped over the rail and dropped the twenty feet to the ground in front of the juggernaut, landing with the grace of an acrobat. It towered over him and he stared back at it, shielding his eyes against its light.

  It could have crushed him like an insect, but instead it rocked back and forth like a shy child being introduced to a stranger. Hugo held up his bloodied hand, fingers splayed, and the juggernaut edged forward. The wound closed up, the edges knitting together, leaving only the bloodstain. With a timid movement, the machine the size of a house leaned forward and nudged his outstretched fingertips.

  'My God!' Gideon exclaimed.

  'My brother.' Elizabeth corrected him with a smile.

  XXX

  'SORRY FOR YOUR TROUBLES'

  It was over two hours later when the party of four returned from the zoo. Daisy, already disturbed by what she had seen there, was shocked at the change in her husband. Roberto seemed to have aged and he looked ridiculously relieved to see her walk through the door. She felt a mix of feelings at his reaction. Even though she could not bring herself to forgive him for cheating on her, she still had hope that she could win him back. But that could all come later. First she needed him to be strong – to protect herself and their sister like a good husband should, instead of letting his emotions get the better of him.

  They could not allow themselves to be intimidated. With a shudder, she thought about the macabre acts she had just witnessed at the zoo. They could not allow themselves to be seen to be intimidated, at least.

  Berto was in an armchair by one of the tall windows, flanked by two of his treacherous cousins, both of whom held revolvers. The curtains were open and she knew he had been watching for their return. Tatiana was sitting on a stool beside him, holding his hand. She looked less bothered by their situation than by the effect it was having on her brother. He smiled like a puppy at Daisy, who stared back sternly at him, urging him to show a bit more backbone.

  'Nathaniel has escaped,' one of the Gideonettes informed them as they walked in. 'He got his velocycle as far as the wall, but had to abandon it, so we know he's on foot. Slattery has gone after him. The bailiff knows his business – we should have our little outcast by daybreak.'

  Hugo nodded, taking his seat behind the desk. Stroking his goatee, he stared with empty eyes at Roberto. He chewed the inside of his mouth, a pensive expression on his face.

  'If he still intends to vanquish me and return to Wildenstern Hall, he won't seek help from outside the family,' he mused. 'We must discredit him, so there will be no help available to him. Spread word that it was he who shot that wretch of a blackamoor we killed at dinner. Say it was over some petty breach of etiquette or other. Make him into a murderer.

  'We will not speak of Edgar's death and there will be no funeral yet. The body will be kept until a more convenient occasion arises. Instead, we will say that he has been struck down by the fever and is at death's door. Needless to say, he is highly infectious and is not receiving visitors.'

  'And then what?' Daisy asked. 'What are you going to do with us?'

  'Our two errant young boys will be kept alive only for as long as they are useful,' Hugo replied. 'And I don't anticipate that being very long at all. You and Tatiana will be spared… But you will spend the rest of your days within these walls. The family needs good breeding stock.'

  'You can't do that,' Daisy said in a tight voice. 'The Rules don't allow for Aggression against women.'

  'They don't have to, my dear Melancholy,' Hugo said with a solemn smile. 'You are women in a man's world. The late Duke, God rest his soul, kept his last wife trapped in the attic for years. Even her children didn't know she was still alive. I hear she was completely out of her mind by the time she finally succumbed to a merciful death.' An edge of menace crept into his voice. 'And unless your behaviour pleases me, you can look forward to the same fate.'

  Elizabeth crossed the floor to where Berto and Tatiana were sitting. She was wearing a new cloak; a strange white affair with a patchwork effect and a high collar. It moved as
she did, with a lightness that belied the weight of the material.

  'Come, Tatiana,' she said, holding out her hand. 'It is long past your bedtime and it has been a terrible, traumatic day. Let us retire and leave these grown-ups to their bickering.'

  'I'm not going anywhere,' Tatiana retorted.

  'Now,' Berto said through gritted teeth. 'Now, Tatty!'

  'Harsh – loud!' Tatty cried, and lifted her skirts to reveal her ankles.

  Her shameful act of exposure took the others by surprise – but it was nothing compared to their reaction as her pet engimal burst from beneath her dress and erupted into a deafening cacophony of metallic drumbeats accompanying what sounded like giant church bells crashing to the ground from a great height. Everyone gasped in pain and covered their ears – except Roberto. Launching himself out of his chair, he jabbed his rigid fingers into the windpipe of the nearest Gideonette, seizing the pistol from his cousin's hand and kicking him in the stomach, knocking him back against the wall. Elizabeth had her back turned and did not hear Hugo's warning over the ear-splitting noise. Berto swung his arm round her neck and pressed the gun against her temple, yelling something nobody could hear.

  'Hush,' said Tatiana, and the bird went quiet, fluttering down to settle on her wrist.

  '- moves and I'll shoot this slattern!' Roberto finished shrieking.

  Every other pistol in the room was now pointing at him, and Daisy carefully moved out of their line of fire, searching for a weapon of her own. She picked up a poker from the fireplace, concealing it in the folds of her skirt. Berto had fooled her and everyone else; his simpering had just been an act – and it had worked.