Cornelius’s voice softened, but only a little as he replied. “Yes, darling. Hold fast.” There was a scuffle and a crackle. “Don’t linger fighting in the hallway. Get yourselves to the lab. Once you’re inside, I’ll barricade us in.”
Johann was about to ask how they’d know when to move, thinking he must have missed the instructions on what this signal would be—and then the castle shook with an explosion from the floor below. Drawing a breath, readying his weapons, Johann burst into the hall with the others, bent on reaching the door beyond which Conny stood.
The castle was in chaos, soldiers rushing for the stairs and officers shouting and demanding to know what was going on, peering out the windows to look for advancing armies. When the guards at the door saw the pirates coming, they shouted the alarm and formed rank to block the crew of the Farthing’s advance.
Then the stones beneath their feet exploded, and the lot of them fell headlong into the floor below.
The doors remained largely intact, swinging inside with the force of the blast. Cornelius was visible at a central table, fingers on an apparatus, his gaze on his rescuers. It lingered on Johann, and for a fraction of a moment, it was only the two of them in the world, reassuring one another they were both well and happy to see each other again. Johann saw there were no scratches or even bruises on his lover, and that somehow he had managed to grow more handsome in their time apart.
Then more guards swarmed them, Cornelius’s assistants in his laboratory swarmed him, and the tender moment was over.
Once Johann and the others scaled the gaping section of the floor, it was easy enough work to subdue Conny’s assistants and bar the door. Johann and Conny embraced and kissed, and the others gave a quick smile and pat on the back before they allowed mother and son a moment to reconnect.
Cornelius wept as he clutched her, all his bravery falling away. “Oh, Maman, I thought they’d broken you. They hurt you. I couldn’t stand it. I had to do what they said.”
“I know, darling. It’s all working out for the best now, so don’t fret.” She kissed him on the cheek and ruffled his hair. In the hallway behind them, the soldiers were scuffling and shouting, and from the sounds of things readying a ram to batter down the door to the laboratory. “Now, what’s the next step in the battle plan?”
Cornelius handed them all small weapons that looked like pistols, but Johann recognized several of the princess’s electronic circuits. “These will stun anyone you wish to slow without causing more bloodshed. There’s a risk someone with a weak heart will be killed, but it’s the best I could do. Avoid the generals in my father’s inner circle, however, and do not shoot my father. It won’t do much to anyone with a clockwork heart except tickle. The calibration would have to be set much higher to do them any damage, and it would overheat the heart, killing them instantly. Which wouldn’t be a terrible event, given they are all the worst offenders, but I didn’t have expertise enough for a two-channel weapon, and we agreed we preferred stunning over death for the lower-ranking soldiers.” He handed an electric pistol to Princess Gisa. “Is the plan still to wait for the Society’s forces to move into position? How many units do they have?”
“Yes, that’s the plan, though they have no units, only a delegation. They knew the explosions were the signal for them to move forward, but it will take a moment for them to advance. They have a signal cannon, and when it fires, you may consider yourself free to engage in the final stratagem. Your transmitters are the only soldiers we have until then.”
Conny nodded, looking pale and grim. He softened, however, as he approached Johann and took his metal hand. “Will you fight beside me, my love?”
Johann squeezed Conny’s hand back, the metal digits curling now as easily at his brain’s command as his flesh ones did. “Of course.”
The doors to the laboratory burst open, the French soldiers swarmed forward, and Johann shifted his stance to guarding position, ready to shield any blows that might come his lover’s way.
The world exploded all around Cornelius, every facet of his life colliding in one terrible climax, and yet Conny could not stop himself from indexing his lover’s new parts, hating that someone else had been the one to do the surgery, despising the world that kept him from falling into Johann’s arms and memorizing every new scar, wire and rivet of his body.
He hated most of all the way Johann felt it acceptable to put himself in the line of fire. When Conny tried to push forward, however, Johann dug his heels in more firmly and shook his head.
“No. You have no armor, no shield.”
“Neither do you, not enough to stop—”
An officer aimed a pistol at Johann, shooting before Conny could cry out. Instead of penetrating Johann’s chest, as it should have done, it clattered uselessly to the floor. Conny’s mouth fell open. “What in the world?”
“I don’t understand it entirely. Something to do with electricity and magnets.” Johann thrust out his right hand at one soldier advancing for them and gripped another with his left. There was a buzz, a blue-white crackle of lightning and a nauseating burning smell as both men went down. “The princess had a bit too much fun kitting me out, I think.”
“I should say so.” Conny clutched his transmitter with one hand as he gripped Johann’s waistcoat with the other, which he now realized was made of rubber. He tucked his hand more firmly against the grounding material as Johann stunned another pair of advancing soldiers. The room was chaos now, glass breaking and clockwork parts falling from shelves as the pirates, the princess and Elizabeth fought against the elite members of the French Army. Even Val managed to fell a few with his electric gun.
Then a sharp whistle rang through the room. The French soldiers fell back, snipers aimed rifles at their heads, and Archduke Francis Cornielle Guillory entered the room.
“Enough of this.” He sauntered forward, smirking at the crew as they closed ranks around Cornelius. “You are surrounded, and you are trapped.” His gaze shifted to Conny, and his smile was without mercy. “Dear boy, I’m afraid you’ll watch many people you love die today. Though what you were thinking bringing that ridiculous fop along to your rescue, I’ll never understand. Valentin, your father will be most displeased with you.”
“I don’t give a damn what my father thinks.” Val, who stood beside them, spat over a table and sneered at Francis. “You are a monster, and you are not the leader of France. You are a servant, and it is time you are taught to behave as such.”
The archduke laughed. “I am France’s savior. That fat fool calling himself emperor can barely direct the drawing of a bath. I doubt he’ll notice he’s been deposed until we relocate him to La Santé. He’s not fit to lead the Empire, and everyone in France knows it.”
Princess Gisa, who stood tall and proud beside Captain Crawley near an as-yet-undisturbed pile of switches and transmitters, lifted her chin a little higher. “You will take no throne and hold no office, French dog. On my honor as a Hohenburg, I shall see to it you are the one to rot in prison. Or better still, I shall see your head placed on a pike.”
“Ah, this must be the always-charming Princess Giselle, who fancies herself a revolutionary. As for Austria, that backward country full of peasants and lordlings, you will be ground beneath my heel like the bothersome rodent you are.” The archduke laughed. “Oh, but I’ll make great use of you, Highness, don’t worry. I’ll make you lead the head of my human automatons. Though I’ll torture you first, to make certain I’ve gleaned every bit of information from you.”
Conny pushed around Johann and glared at his father. “I’ve told you over and over, you can’t make human automatons. You can’t control the brain so easily.”
“I can if the right part of their brain is severed, which Dr. Savoy has just this morning learned how to do.” He gestured to the physician smirking beside the archduke. “Dr. Savoy might not be able to replicate your hearts, but he has put them
to good use with quite a few improvements. His soldiers operate by the new wireless transmitters, which I see your friends have put to some creative uses. We’ll be gleaning that information from you as well. The princess’s electric parasol will suit my soldiers nicely.”
Conny felt sick, imagining the men and women who must have died in horrible ways for these experiments, and those who were not so fortunate. “I will never aid you in such a venture. No matter who you threaten to torture.”
“Then I will torture you, my dear boy, or better let give you to Dr. Savoy, who will make use of you one way or another.”
Conny’s mother bared her teeth. “You are a burrowing pig, Francis, to threaten your only son in this way. Where is the affection you always carried for him? How can you so easily toss him away for your ambitions?”
“The affection I have for him has been and will ever be subservient to my country.” He gestured to the room as if he were already the emperor, on his dais at Versailles. “You accuse us of reaching for power, because you are mongrel fools. We are the leaders of the new world, the Europe which will be. United and whole, at peace because there are no more borders to squabble over. With our glorious clockwork hearts, we are stronger and faster than any other men who stand against us. With Savoy’s soldiers at our side, we will take Austria, then Italy, Portugal, and even Russia, if she stands in our way. We will make every man, woman and child who stands against us work for us by taking away their will. This includes all of you, if you do not surrender immediately.”
Conny had hoped for his father to keep pontificating, buying them more time, because no cannon fire had come from the hills. A glance at Princess Gisa told him she was worried too, that the Society should have approached by now. When she met his gaze, he raised his eyebrows in silent question. Should I proceed?
After a moment’s hesitation, she inclined her head.
Drawing a deep breath, Conny turned back to his father. “We will not surrender. But you will.” Gut twisting in distaste, fighting the urge to shut his eyes, Conny pushed the first button on his transmitter.
Every man he’d put the clockwork heart inside, including the archduke, stumbled forward, clutching his chest. As they recovered, Conny held the controller in his hand higher.
“This is a wireless electronic transmitter. It operates differently than your radio waves, and it has been attuned to the micro transmitters fashioned into each one of your clockwork hearts. You will surrender, or I will push the other button. The one that will kill you all.”
For a moment, the archduke looked stricken. He shot a furious glance at Savoy, who frowned as he studied the archduke’s chest. Then Guillory narrowed his gaze at Cornelius, relaxed and laughed.
“No. You won’t. You don’t have the stomach for so much death. You might slow us, but not every soldier in the room has your heart, and they will take you down. As for our clockwork hearts, Savoy and his team will undo whatever damage you’ve done.” He motioned to a captain. “Seize them.”
“Now, Mr. Stevens!” Princess Gisa cried, extending her parasol.
The room exploded in chaos. Heng and Crawley went down with terrified cries, and Olivia and Molly kicked and screamed obscenities as they fought off their attackers. New soldiers had entered the room, the human automatons Savoy had created. Their eyes were fixed and without light, their bodies ambling forward without care or pause, unmoved by the electric guns or even regular bullets. Elizabeth and Félix held their own, sheltered as they were behind Princess Gisa, but they too would fall quickly.
It would all stop if Conny pushed the button. Except his father was right. He couldn’t do it.
The others urged him on, shouting his name, telling him not to let his father get into his head, but they didn’t understand. Conny couldn’t. He turned to Johann, trying to explain, but Johann was busy fighting off the soldiers trying to take them down. It was nearly over, and everyone Conny loved was about to die or become one of his father’s horrible creatures, all because he didn’t have the strength to push a button. With a tear running down his cheek, he turned to Val, hoping his friend would have the presence of mind to talk him into doing what he had to do.
Except Val was already in front of him, reaching for the transmitter.
It all happened so quickly. Val’s arm extending, hand closing over the mechanism. The archduke barking out an order for the soldier whose rifle was trained on Val. The shot ringing through the air, the electric arc of Johann’s modified clockwork zinging across the room, taking down the shooter and the entire regiment of automaton soldiers. In the distance, the surreal multi-tonal sound of the signal cannon told them the Society had arrived at last. Nearly too late.
With the cannon’s song still ringing in the distance, every man carrying a clockwork heart, save Johann, fell convulsing to the floor.
So did Val, clutching his chest as his shirt and waistcoat stained with blood.
Crying out, Conny caught him, applying pressure to the wound as he wept over his longest friend, who now stared up at him in shock. All around them chaos reigned, the soldiers hesitating as their officers sputtered and died, and the pirates took quick advantage of this. Princess Gisa barked out demands, explaining what she’d meant to say when the archduke was still alive, that the Society to Liberate Europe had arrived with their armed escorts and their intent to seize control of the keep and the command of the war itself. The French Army had lost. The Society was about to carry the day.
All the while, in Conny’s arms, Valentin bled out.
“Oh, Val—” Conny choked on his sob as he pressed harder on the bleeding area, unable to deny how close it had come to the heart. Likely damaging a major aorta. He had almost no time. All because Conny could not bear to take a life. Because he had hesitated like a coward. Because he had failed them all.
Val raised a hand weakly, his fingers barely brushing Conny’s face, though his glazed gaze lingered. “No. Don’t…look like that. I never meant to let you push the trigger. You—” He broke off, coughing, blood coming out of the side of his mouth. “You wouldn’t be Conny, if you killed so many men.”
“But I don’t want to lose you,” Conny whispered.
Félix crouched beside him, assessing Val with a surgeon’s eye. “If we can get him onto a Lazarus, we can keep him alive long enough to sort out his injuries.”
Conny shook his head, biting his lip. “It’s his heart, Félix. I’d have to build him a new one. They take time, as you well know, and my lab has been destroyed. We need far more time than we can afford to have him on the Lazarus.”
Crawley appeared on Cornelius’s other side. He looked pale and distraught, unable to take his gaze from dying Valentin. “Why can’t you take one from the dead officers?”
“The hearts were ruined by the pulse I sent.” He clamped a hand over his mouth. “My darling Val, I’m so sorry.”
Johann put his clockwork hand on Conny’s shoulder. “Can he use mine?”
Conny shook his head, ready to explain no one could live that long on a Lazarus alone, but Félix eyed Johann speculatively. “He has the original, not your copies. It has the best, rarest metals in its interior. It’s been improved by the both of us, and tempered by Johann’s use. It’s strong. Strong enough to beat, at least for a short while, for two. They would both have to be under aether, and it would have to take turns pumping for each of them. Two Lazarus machines. Two patients. One heart. And an incredible amount of surgeon skill.”
The idea of the men he loved most in the world having their lives hang in the balance made Conny want to vomit. But Val was fading before him, and Johann crouched beside him, looking Conny earnestly in the eye. Waiting to be given his orders.
Conny wiped away more tears. “None of this would have happened had I not hesitated.”
“No,” Crawley said. “We were cruel to leave it in your hand. Our intention was never to have to follow th
rough, but we shouldn’t have relied on the Society’s arrival. We should have had a dummy transmitter in your hand and a real one in someone else’s. Val was right, you never should have had this burden. And it would have been you dying, if you’d looked ready to make the move. They’d have shot whoever put their finger on that button. The only reason Val made it was because they didn’t see him coming.” Crawley nodded at Conny, the glib curtness of his tone belying the stricken look in his eyes. “Stop taking the weight of the whole war on your shoulders and do what you do best, tinker. Fix it. Fix our Frenchie.”
Conny drew a steadying breath. He glanced around again, saw Gisa had the room in hand, that some of the Society members and their soldiers had begun to enter the lab. The castle was seized, the battle won.
Now all that was left was to heal.
He straightened, drew a steadying breath and nodded to a large cabinet across the room. “There’s a Lazarus in there, and we’ll likely find another in Savoy’s lab.” Keeping one hand on Val’s wound, he grabbed Johann’s face and kissed him hard on the mouth. “You will not die, do you hear me? You will not die.”
“Not unless you tell me to,” Johann promised.
Chapter Eighteen
In the ruined remains of the room where he’d been held prisoner, with his father lying dead on the floor beneath a sheet, Cornelius Francis Stevens performed the most technical, terrifying and tender surgery of his life.
He’d had curtains set up to enclose them in their corner of the room, but there was no escaping the activity near the door, where Society officials and their underlings moved bodies, set up makeshift floorboards where they’d been blown away, and in general cleaned up after the mess. Princess Gisa did what she could to keep them quiet, but it was difficult.
Cornelius tried not to care, tried to focus on his work. It was easy enough when he was tending to Johann or Val, because while he checked their vitals or adjusted who between them used the heart and who used the Lazarus, he thought of the two of them and how humbled he was by their sacrifices, of how much he loved them both. When he returned to his worktable and helped Master Félix build Valentin’s new heart, however, the gravity of it all overwhelmed him.
Clockwork Heart: Clockwork Love, Book 1 Page 25