If the remains of her brothers were truly gone, then this would be her last moment. Eleanor stood poised, knowing that she didn’t have any chance should they turn on her. The articulated necks and gleaming jeweled eyes of the birds were all directed at the princess below.
“Come away….” Nikolai’s voice came soft from behind her back. He sounded as if he were calming a falcon, trying to put a hood on it.
Eleanor dared not glance back at him; one sight of his face twisted with concern and she would be quite undone. Yet she couldn’t tell him what to do, not yet…not when she was so close to the end of her task. She just had to hope he would follow her lead.
With quick strides, she walked toward the first of the swans and flung the cloak over the metallic back. With eleven brothers she had to work fast, but then she heard the king himself step up and help her. He couldn’t have known what he was doing, but her heart swelled at his trust in her.
Finally the swans all stood, covered in their cloaks.
“See, my liege,” said the temple priest, finally collected himself, “the witch knows them.”
“I think perhaps she does.” Nikolai held up his hand, to stay the guards from making a move.
Eleanor took out of her pocket the largest starlight opal. The one worth a fortune in any kingdom. Every love meant sacrifice.
Dropping the gem to the floor, she pulled her mallet out from her other sleeve and bought the weight of it smashing down on the precious thing.
The white light within was freed, making everyone in the room flinch away. All except Eleanor, who watched it fill all the other gems in the cloak. They gleamed brightly, bringing power to the cloaks. She heard the creak of the gears, and the snap of the vises within as they locked tight on the structure of the swans. The machines threw their proud heads back, and great trumpeting screams broke the rest of the remaining glass in the observatory.
The machines shivered, the workings shaking themselves loose; something large and metallic ground against itself. And then the doors burst open and Eleanor’s brothers—all eleven—staggered from within them.
They were gaunt, pale, and sweaty, but Eleanor didn’t care. She rushed to them, called their names, embraced them.
After so long in silence her voice cracked and fractured on the words. Then she felt Nikolai’s hand on her shoulder, and now she found she could look up into the king’s eyes. She was free of subterfuge and the tenets of the cloak construction.
“These are my brothers.” It felt so good to say it, though it came out husky. “I am sure you are wondering. Madame Escrew has my father in thrall, and she did this to them. The machines were swallowing them, and I had to work in silence to free them.”
“That was not what I was wondering,” Nikolai replied. “Your name is what I have wanted all this time?”
She smiled as she helped Brian to his feet. “Eleanor.”
The princess and the king stared at each other while the brothers shook themselves and blinked.
The priest had turned white, while the guardsmen shifted on their feet, uncertain what to do. They could all tell that something had changed in the broken observatory.
“Now what do we do, Eleanor? What is the next move?” Alan pushed his hair out of his eyes, and she was aware that all of her brothers were once again looking to her for answers.
The king of the Eagles, too, was watching her, those green eyes expecting and welcoming. She turned and looked at the remains of the swan machines with an analytical eye.
“I say that we can learn a great deal from these machines. And then”—she smiled archly—“we turn her work on her, and take back the Swan City and my father.”
The men around her nodded.
“And you shall lead us,” Nikolai said, taking her hand. “A true Queen of the Swans.”
Contributors
Paul Di Filippo began reading science fiction at the age of five, when he encountered his first Mighty Mouse comic. He published his first story in 1977, and has since become responsible for thirty books under his byline. He hopes to keep at this game for some time yet. His tastes in fantastika are omnivorous.
Nancy A. Collins has authored numerous novels, short stories, and comic books, including Swamp Thing. She is a recipient of the HWA’s Stoker Award and the British Fantasy Society Award, and has been nominated for the Eisner, World Fantasy, and International Horror Guild Awards. Best known for her groundbreaking vampire character, Sonja Blue, which heralded the rise of the urban fantasy genre, her works include Sunglasses After Dark, Knuckles and Tales, and the Vamps series for Young Adults. Her most recent novel is Magic and Loss, the third installment in the critically acclaimed Golgotham urban fantasy series. She currently resides in Wilmington, North Carolina, with her fiancé, Tommy, their Boston terrier, Chopper, and an indeterminate number of cats.
Gregory Nicoll has created eerie, atmospheric horror tales for such anthologies as Confederacy of the Dead, Cthulhu’s Heirs, 100 Vicious Little Vampire Stories, It Came from the Drive-In, Gahan Wilson’s The Ultimate Haunted House, Book of the Dead 2: Still Dead, Mondo Zombie, and Zombiesque. Three of his works were selected for The Year’s Best Horror Stories and another was chosen for the 2012 edition of The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror. Greg’s long-overdue first foray into steampunk appears here in Clockwork Fairy Tales. He promises it will not be his last.
Steven Harper lives with his sons in southeast Michigan, where he teaches high school English, plays the folk harp, and spends a sadly enormous amount of time online. He recently discovered to his surprise that as of this writing, he’s written more steampunk than any other genre. He’s currently working on the Clockwork Empire series for Roc Books; the series includes The Doomsday Vault, The Impossible Cube, The Dragon Men, and The Havoc Machine. Visit his Web page and blog at http://theclockworkempire.com.
Jay Lake lives in Portland, Oregon, where he works on numerous writing and editing projects. His 2012/2013 books are Kalimpura from Tor Books, and Love in the Time of Metal and Flesh from Prime Books. His short fiction appears regularly in literary and genre markets worldwide. Jay is a past winner of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and a multiple nominee for the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards. Jay can be reached through his blog at jlake.com.
Kat Richardson is the bestselling author of the Greywalker paranormal detective novels and models her stories on the work of such iconic detective writers as Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, with a dash of whimsy, horror, and an occasional ferret. A former theater brat and technical editor, Kat has worked in a variety of fields from music to magazine and course writing, as well as film, games, and gemology. She lives on a boat in the Seattle area with her husband and a goofy pit bull, as well as the ghosts of ferrets. Visit her Web site at http://katrichardson.com. for more information.
Philippa Ballantine is the author of the Books of the Order series with Ace: Geist, Spectyr,Wrayth, and Harbinger, the final book out soon. She is also the coauthor of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series with Tee Morris. Phoenix Rising, the first book of the series, won an Airship Award in steampunk writing. In addition, she has the Shifted World series with Pyr Books, with the first book, Hunter and Fox, out now. Philippa loves reading, gardening, and, whenever possible, traveling. With her husband, Tee, and her daughter, she is looked after by a mighty clowder of five cats.
G. K. Hayes has been writing award-winning fiction for more than thirty years, with recent short stories appearing in SF and Horror anthologies such as Critical Mass, Zombiesque, Night Terrors II, and Dark Moon Books Presents: Zombies! He is also the author of the six-book epic fantasy series, Sleag’s Quest, a fun ride through a New World. You can visit him at gkhayes.com. He has been lucky to find his muse in his beautiful wife, Linda.
After residences in Los Angeles, San Francisco, England, and Spain, K. W. Jeter and his wife, Geri, currently make their home in Ecuador. He still grieves for the now-vanished Los Angeles in which he was born. His latest publications inclu
de the novel The Kingdom of Shadows, a collaboration with Gareth Jefferson Jones titled Death’s Apprentice, and the first four books in a new thriller series—Kim Oh 1: Real Dangerous Girl, Kim Oh 2: Real Dangerous Job, Kim Oh 3: Real Dangerous People, Kim Oh 4: Real Dangerous Place, and Kim Oh 5: Real Dangerous Fun. More information on his books and stories can be found online at www.kwjeter.com.
About the Editors
Stephen L. Antczak is the author of the short story collection Daydreams Undertaken and the novel God Drug, as well as more than fifty horror, fantasy, and science fiction short stories, the play Romeo’s Ghost, and the comic books Nightwolf: the Price and Arkadian. He coedited, with James C. Bassett, the horror anthology Zombiesque.
James C. Bassett’s fiction has appeared worldwide in markets such as Amazing Stories, the Australian anthology Shadow Box, the German Podgeschichten, and the World Fantasy Award–winning anthology Leviathan 3. With Stephen L. Antczak he coedited the anthology Zombiesque. He is also an acclaimed stone and wood sculptor.
(This page constitutes an extension of the copyright page:)
“La Valse” by K. W. Jeter copyright © K. W. Jeter, 2013
“Fair Vasyl” by Steven Harper copyright © Steven Piziks, 2013
“The Hollow Hounds” by Kat Richardson copyright © Kathleen Richardson, 2013
“The Kings of Mount Golden” by Paul Di Filippo copyright © Paul Di Filippo, 2013
“You Will Attend Until Beauty Awakens” by Jay Lake copyright © Joseph E. Lake Jr., 2013
“Mose and the Automatic Fireman” by Nancy A. Collins copyright © Nancy A. Collins, 2013
“The Clockwork Suit” by G. K. Hayes copyright © Gary Kim Hayes, 2013
“The Steampiper, the Stovepiper, and the Pied Piper of New Hamelin, Texas” by Gregory Nicoll copyright © Gregory Nicoll, 2013
“The Mechanical Wings” by Pip Ballantine copyright © Philippa Ballantine, 2013
Clockwork Fairy Tales - A Collection Of Steampunk Fables Page 34