The Kaiser Affair (The Drifting Isle Chronicles)
Page 23
Arjuna’s arm bulged and he ripped his hand free of its restraints. His hand raced back under the pillow and emerged as fast as thought with a primed coilgun pointed at the dark figure standing at the edge of the room. The Shadow already had a coilgun aimed at them both.
Bettina had no weapon within reach so she grabbed the closest thing at hand. She had placed the riding crop on the edge of the bed as she was dressing, not fully intending to use it that evening, but she hadn’t bothered to put it away and now she was glad of the oversight. The small whip made a poor substitute for a coilgun, but it was certainly better than nothing.
The cool draft from the open door whispered across her bare breasts.
“Miss Nacht.” Bettina straightened her back and regarded the masked woman coolly. “I don’t recall you making an appointment.”
“No, this is more of an informal call. You can tell because we’re talking, and you’re not dead.” The Shadow removed her mask and the pale features of Angelika Nacht gazed out from the darkness. “You can lower your weapons. You are quite outnumbered this time.”
The floorboards creaked softly. Bettina spun to see a second masked assassin emerge from the shadows beside her dresser with a naked blade in his hand, and a third Shadow stood up from the tiny pool of shade next to her night table with a spool of piano wire around his fingers.
That’s a disturbing image.
Bettina placed the riding crop on the bed, and Arjuna set his coilgun down and took his hand away.
“Very good,” Miss Nacht said. “Now, where is the bow?”
Bettina smiled. “Funny. Somehow I knew that’s what you’d ask for. Open the trunk to your right. I wrapped the bow and the three arrows in a black sheet for you. Black is your color, isn’t it?”
The Shadow opened the trunk and pulled out the tightly wrapped bundle. It was tied at both ends with black ribbons, but the contents offered a muted metallic clink as they were lifted.
“Thank you,” the young woman said. “But there is another matter. You’ve both learned far too much about us, our ways, and our intentions.”
“Then why not simply kill us?” Bettina asked. “Why all the dramatics?”
“Business,” Arjuna answered. “She explained it to me yesterday. They could kill everyone who inconvenienced them, but then there would be no one left to hire them, or something to that effect.”
“Something like that.” Miss Nacht smiled. “But I sense that the usual threats of a strange and torturous death won’t be very effective in ensuring your confidence.”
“Probably not, but there is something else you might try,” Bettina said. “Let’s make a deal instead. Minister Kaiser was responsible for her brother’s escape from prison and his little jaunt to Inselmond. And she knows that we know.”
“We do?” Arjuna frowned thoughtfully.
“Yes, darling, we do,” Bettina said.
“And she sent the two of you to die in his pursuit? I had no idea the Minister of Justice was so… vicious. And you left her alive?” The assassin nodded slowly. “I see your dilemma. Very well. As long as you protect our secrets, we will protect your lives.”
“I would appreciate you not killing her unless it was truly necessary,” Bettina said. “But yes, that arrangement would be most acceptable. We value our lives far more than your secrets.”
“Excellent. Then we have a deal.” Miss Nacht gestured to her masked associates and the two men ducked down and vanished through the dark walls and floor from which they had come. “Good evening, Missus Rothschild. I’ll leave you to your evening’s diversion.”
The Shadow placed her long beaked mask over her face and stepped back into the darkness of the hallway and melted from sight.
Bettina exhaled a long tense breath. “Thank goodness.”
“Thank goodness?” Arjuna raised an eyebrow as he tucked his gun back under the pillow. “What on earth was good about that?”
“Well dear, I took the liberty of threatening the minister this afternoon with tales of our new friends, the Shadows, before I had actually secured their help.” Bettina brushed her hair back from her face. “But it all played out just as I hoped and now all is well again. More or less.”
He smiled and shook his head in amused bafflement. “If you’re happy, I’m happy.”
“Good.” She tugged her long gloves up more snugly on each arm and then picked up the riding crop from the side of the bed. “And now, let’s both endeavor to be very happy for the next several hours together.”
A note about
The Drifting Isle Chronicles
In January 2012, a team of fantasy authors began an ambitious new project. These strangers, each with a unique writing style and genre focus, came together to create a new fictional world that would blend the mechanical wizardry of steampunk with the classic magic and mystery of epic fantasy.
As the weeks passed, the authors created a sprawling city peopled with all manners of aristocrats, inventors, artists, scholars, travelers, and of course, sinister criminals. But strangest of all was the ancient island that they placed among the clouds above the skyscrapers.
And then each author took a separate piece of this new world and wrote their own novel about it: a journey of discovery, a crime thriller, a tale of magic, and an investigation into the long forgotten secrets of a lost civilization. This is one of those novels.
Titles in the Drifting Isle Chronicles:
Black Mercury … Charlotte E. English
The Kaiser Affair … Joseph Robert Lewis
The Machine God … MeiLin Miranda
To learn more about the series, or to learn how you can write and publish your own official Drifting Isle novel, visit:
www.driftingislechronicles.com
Other steampunk thrillers by Joseph Robert Lewis:
Halcyon 1: The Burning Sky
Halcyon 2: The Broken Sword
Halcyon 3: The Bound Soul
About the Author
Hi, I’m Joe. I write books. Lots of books. Mostly fantasy and science fiction. I like to create new worlds where history, mythology, and fantasy collide in unpredictable ways. And I think a good story should be, you know, fun. Although it never hurts to learn something cool, too. I also like writing about heroines that my daughters can respect and admire, characters who blaze their own paths with fierce personalities, bright minds, and unbreakable spirits.
And if you’re curious, I was born in Annapolis and went to the University of Maryland to study ancient novels, morality plays, and Viking poetry. Outside of the world of fiction, I work with a lot of smart people to write and publish books about technology, software, politics, economics, and history. I live in Maryland with my wife and children.
www.josephrobertlewis.com
Table of Contents
The Drifting Isle Chronicles: The Kaiser Affair
Chapter 1. A Late Summons
Chapter 2. A Thief’s Pride
Chapter 3. A Mad Dash
Chapter 4. A Murder of Ravens
Chapter 5. A Pleasant Lunch
Chapter 6. A Slippery Shadow
Chapter 7. A Business Matter
Chapter 8. A Violent Introduction
Chapter 9. A Hasty Bargain
Chapter 10. A Little Swim
Chapter 11. A Brief History
Chapter 12. A Swift Search
Chapter 13. A Crime Scene
Chapter 14. A Gifted Stranger
Chapter 15. A Dirty Fight
Chapter 16. A Rusty Box
Chapter 17. A Slow Pursuit
Chapter 18. A Riparian Exchange
Chapter 19. A Dramatic Exit
Chapter 20. A Legal Question
Chapter 21. A Dark Detour
Chapter 22. A Furious Exchange
Chapter 23. A Quiet Confession
Epilogue: A Late Visit
About the Author
hronicles)