The Dragon Men

by Steven Harper

  “Monster!” she cried at Su Shun, tears streaming down her face. “May you rot in hell!”

  “I won’t translate,” Phipps said hoarsely. “Though I think he understood the general idea.”

  That seemed to be the case. Su Shun made a sharp gesture, and one of the soldiers grabbed Alice’s arms with a steel grip that left bruises. He dragged her up to the stairs to the new emperor’s feet. The eyes on her spider gauntlet glowed green—no one near her carried the clockwork plague. She looked up at Su Shun and his yellow armor and his half-brass face and his metal neck all ringed in rivets. There was a fury in his eyes, but fear, too. In that moment, she saw that he was little more than a boy surrounding himself with a wall of metal and creating toys that would fight for him. Under other circumstances she might have found him pathetic or even pitiable, but right now a woman and a child were, at his order, drowning in fear and darkness. The snippet of whirling brass tugged at the tail of her eye again, but she kept her eyes on him.

  “Do not look the emperor in the eye, pig spawn,” Su Shun snapped.

  “You’re nothing but a tin bully,” Alice snapped back, and spat at his feet.

  At those particular words, Phipps, Li, and all of Li’s men put their hands over their ears. So did Alice. The imperial soldiers had time to look puzzled. In a rage, Su Shun drew back the vibrating sword, and at that moment, an explosion rocked the Forbidden City. Heat blasted through the courtyard, and a shock wave knocked flat everyone who wasn’t kneeling, including Su Shun. A second blast followed the first. Several of the Dragon Men’s mechanical animals were knocked over. The gunpowder and ammunition stores—the source of the explosion—roiled up to the sky in a choking cloud of black smoke. Alice, who was braced for the event, recovered first. She leaped past Su Shun and snatched up the Ebony Chamber. With shaking fingers, she spun the phoenix latch to 000 and opened the lid. Out of the impossibly small space, Alice drew one of Gavin’s new pistols, trailing its battery pack by a cable, and threw it to Phipps. Alice tossed a second pistol to Li and kept the third for herself. She started to shrug herself into the battery pack, but the well caught her eye. How long had Lady Orchid and Cricket been down there?

  Chaos erupted in all directions. Phipps turned and fired at the Dragon Men’s automatons without bothering to put the battery pack on first. Her pistol spat crackling orange bolts that hissed and sparked over the mechanical animals, blowing holes in them or melting them. Li joined her. The black-clad Dragon Men scattered like shadows before the light, howling as they went. Li’s men shot to their feet and leaped for their imperial counterparts, wrestling the stunned guards to get their weapons back. Su Shun was staggering to his feet, shaking his head. Alice tried fumbling with the battery pack, but her fingers were numb. And the well—always the well.

  Su Shun raised the Jade Hand and shouted something. The Hand glowed, and all about the courtyard, tiny points of light showed a gleaming salamander where a Dragon Man heard his voice and halted dead in his tracks.

  “Alice!” Phipps yelled, still firing at automatons. “He’s telling the Dragon Men to defend him! Shoot him! Shut him up!”

  The Dragon Men were running toward their inventions now, the fifteen or twenty that still worked. The Dragon Men whose automatons had been destroyed ran toward Su Shun, apparently ready to fight with their bare hands. It might have been funny but for the heightened strength and reflexes granted them by the plague. Two of the Dragon Men, in fact, leaped forward like baboons, covering half the distance to Su Shun in a single jump. Li caught one in the chest with a pistol shot, and he vanished in a fiery scream.

  Alice glanced at the well in which Cricket and Lady Orchid were drowning, then raised the heavy pistol and aimed it at Su Shun. The cable dragged her arm toward the battery pack, which lay at her feet. Her hands were shaking. She had never shot anyone before. Su Shun turned to look at her. The fear had left his eyes. Flames from the fires behind Alice reflected in them, giving him a dragon’s gaze. He had just murdered two people and planned to kill thousands more. Why was she hesitating? Her finger tightened on the trigger.

  The wire sword in Su Shun’s other hand lashed out. With a vvvvvip it sliced through the power cable. It dropped to the stairs at Alice’s feet, spitting orange sparks.

  “Oh bugger,” Alice said, and wondered if those would be her last words ever.

  Su Shun drew back the sword. Alice tensed to dodge away, but knew she wouldn’t make it. Dragon Men were beginning to swarm the steps. She had come so far, only to die.

  Another blast rocked the stairs. This time Alice did lose her balance. She fell backward and landed on her posterior. Su Shun was flung down, and even the Dragon Men lost their balance. The sound of the blast had a strangely musical quality to it, and the realization made Alice’s heart sing. She looked up. Gavin, blue wings spread wide, rushed down from the sky with the Impossible Cube in his hands and the silver nightingale on his shoulder. Alice couldn’t have been happier. He landed beside her as she scrambled to her feet. Two of Alice’s whirligig automatons joined him, one of them still trailing the bit of fuse it had used to light the powder stores.

  “I’m so glad to see you,” she said. “All three of you.”

  The automatons squeaked, and Gavin grinned.

  “Sorry I took off like that,” he said in that wonderful voice of his. He aimed the Cube at Su Shun. “I’ll handle him. Where’s Lady Orchid?”

  “The well!” Without another word Alice sprinted across the lawn, dodging cinders and burning patches of grass. Her automatons followed. The soldiers had kicked the cover open, though the large freestanding windlass remained in place. Next to the windlass stood a mechanical lizard of some sort. It wasn’t bearded like the dragons Alice had seen. Both its front feet were placed on the windlass. Cricket and Lady Orchid had been down there only a few minutes. They could still be alive. Unless they had hit their heads on the way down or broken something or if they couldn’t swim or . . .

  Alice called down. “Lady Orchid! Cricket! Can you hear me?”

  Nothing. Alice felt sick. Then a faint voice called back, “Alice?”

  It was Lady Orchid. Alice breathed relief.

  “I’ll help you!” she called, hoping Lady Orchid could understand the idea, if not the words. “Hang on!”

  She tried to think. The two whirligigs couldn’t maneuver down in the well, and it took four of them to lift a person anyway. Alice examined the mechanical lizard. It had controls on it, levers and buttons hidden among the scales. Over at the steps, Su Shun had switched off the sword to thrust it into his belt and was now brandishing the Ebony Chamber. Gavin blasted another shot of energy, this time at Su Shun, but Su Shun caught the power in the open Chamber, which swallowed it. Heart pounding, Alice let her talent go to work. In moments she worked out how the controls operated, and she slapped a button. The lizard sprang to life. It cranked the windlass, and a bucket more than three feet across dropped into the well. The Dragon Men on the steps had recovered from Gavin’s first blast and were moving in toward him. Gavin flared his wings, knocking two aside. The other Dragon Men had reached their automatons, but Phipps and Li continued to keep them busy with suppressive fire while the soldiers fought with one another, roaring like tigers and shedding scarlet blood.

  A faint splash as well as a shout from Lady Orchid came from below. Alice hoped it meant she was ready. She was reaching for another control on the lizard when a hard hand spun her round. A Dragon Man, salamander glowing around his ear, stared at her. He licked his lips with quick, darting motions and said something Alice didn’t understand, though her skin went cold at his tone. He held up a serrated knife. A strange calm came over Alice. She had hesitated on the steps with Su Shun, and it had cost so much. Now she wouldn’t hesitate. Everything seemed to move slowly, as if wrapped in honey. She smiled at the Dragon Man and put out a slow hand to caress his cheek. He smiled, then shifted his grip on the knife, ready to stab. With a quick twist, Alice wrapped her fingers around the sala
mander at his ear and yanked.

  The little machine came free with a wet, tearing sound. A trail of blood arced through the air. The Dragon Man’s face went blank. He collapsed to the ground in convulsions, leaping and twitching like a landed fish. At last he gave one final spasm and went still. Alice didn’t stop to examine him. She dropped the salamander and slapped the control on the lizard. It reversed itself, drawing the large bucket up with easy strength. In moments Orchid and Cricket appeared at the top of the well, drenched but unharmed. Lady Orchid’s beautiful face was pinched with fear and pain. Cricket clung to her as they both sat in the bucket, and she held the rope with her good hand. Her stump trailed water, cleansed and strangely purified. Unfortunately, Alice could stay only long enough to make sure they were all right before she turned and ran back to the triple stairs. The staircase nearest her climbed toward the side of the big pavilion, which would send her up along Su Shun’s right and, hopefully, out of his range of vision.

  “You two,” she said to the whirligigs, “go find Prince Kung and tell him to send reinforcements.”

  The whirligigs zipped off into the night sky.

  Gavin, meanwhile, had taken to the air again to avoid the advancing Dragon Men, half a dozen of whom had crowded around Su Shun and the Ebony Chamber. The Impossible Cube was barely glowing now, nearly out of power, and Gavin seemed reluctant to use it. Alice thought about the Dragon Man she had just killed and tasted nausea again. She understood Gavin’s disinclination to kill.

  But when Alice arrived at the side steps and started to climb, she saw things were changing. Li’s men had turned the tide and had defeated or killed most of the Imperial Guards. Li and Phipps had destroyed nearly all the Chinese automatons, and even now Phipps was turning to focus her pistol on Su Shun and the Dragon Men around them. Phipps had no compunctions about killing.

  “Surrender, Su Shun!” Phipps barked, or so Alice assumed—Phipps didn’t translate.

  Su Shun looked down at Phipps and her enormous pistol, at Li, who was finishing off the last of the automatons, at his soldiers, who were dead or defeated. His gaze lingered on Gavin, who hovered above them all with the Impossible Cube, and then he laughed again. Alice was truly beginning to hate this man and his grating laugh. Phipps aimed her pistol at him, but before she could do more, Su Shun raised the Jade Hand one more time and shouted. His voice reached Gavin, who still hovered above the carnage, and the salamander glowed in his ear.

  For a wild moment, Alice thought there was no way for anything to happen because Su Shun was giving the order in Chinese, but of course Gavin understood that language now. Gavin twitched once. Phipps’s pistol whined, and the tip glowed orange.

  “Susan!” Alice screamed. “Look out!”

  Gavin sang. As it always did, the Impossible Cube twisted the crystalline note into something terrible, and a dreadful power thundered down. It swept Phipps and Li and the rest of the soldiers aside like rag dolls. Even off to one side as she was, Alice was crushed to the stairs, and a hot wind blasted her hair and skirts. Sand and small stones stung her skin. She tried to push herself upright, but the forces pushing her down were too strong. The noise and pain went on and on, and she huddled against the steps in a hell of Gavin’s devising.

  And then it ended. Just stopped. Alice’s ears rang in the sudden silence. She sat up. Her skin was scoured and raw. With wings outstretched, Gavin touched down on the stairs before Su Shun and knelt before him with the dark Impossible Cube. Everyone else in the courtyard lay scattered in broken dollhouse piles.

  “Gavin.” Alice’s throat was choked with dust, and she had to cough to get the word out. “Gavin! Fight him!”

  But her words were too quiet. If Gavin or Su Shun heard her, neither paid the slightest bit of attention. Su Shun snapped a question at Gavin.

  “It’s out of power,” Gavin replied in a dull voice. “The water flowed away. The Ebony Chamber can recharge it, but putting the two closer together would make a dragon weapon so powerful that mere floods and volcanoes would be like teacups and lanterns in a mourning parade.”

  Su Shun backhanded Gavin with the Jade Hand and gave him another order. Gavin’s head snapped back, but he spoke again, this time in Chinese. Alice assumed he was translating what he had already said, and ice ran through her veins at the smile that crossed Su Shun’s face. Alice forced herself to her feet. Her legs were shaking.

  Su Shun slapped the hollow Ebony Chamber open with the Jade Hand. Like a puppet on strings, Gavin turned on one knee and held the solid Impossible Cube over it.

  “No.” Alice tried to shout, but it came out in a whisper.

  Electricity spat and arced from the Chamber to the Cube. A rumble shook the earth, and air moved across Alice’s cheek. Sparks danced around the spider gauntlet on Alice’s left hand, and the metal tingled. Gavin lowered the Cube. The sharp smell of ozone permeated the air, mingling with a tight tension. Thunder rumbled overhead. Fingers of lightning crackled in all directions, and matching flickers of it danced in the clouds above. Gavin’s hair stood out, and a manic expression descended over his face. His wings quivered and glowed so brightly, they were hard to look at. The Impossible Cube was a thing of solid light, the Ebony Chamber an utter black void. Hungry cracks ran up all three staircases and the two dragon statues at the top shattered with ear-crushing explosions. Power swirled and dripped from Gavin’s hands. Su Shun spoke again, and Gavin pushed the Cube fully into the maw of the Chamber.

  A whirlpool of light and dark swirled around the two objects become one. It rushed outward, engulfing everyone in the courtyard. Phipps and Li and the surviving soldiers and Dragon Men convulsed hard as the energy swept over them, and overhead a thunderbolt boomed through the sky. The whirlpool sucked itself back into the Cube and Chamber, leaving an abrupt silence. Alice staggered up to the top of the cracking threefold staircase and realized her footsteps made no sound. Her clothes didn’t rustle; her breathing was completely silent. Even her heart, frantic and fast within her chest, made no noise. Lightning tore the sky again, but no thunder came. The open box at Su Shun’s feet glowed bloodred. Alice moved around until Su Shun was below her on the staircase and picked up a rocky bit of rubble from one of the dragon statues. She crept down the steps.

  Sound returned in a rush. Thunder exploded overhead and wind rustled. The semiconscious people at the bottom of the staircase groaned and tried to stand up. Gavin’s wings chimed their single soft note. And Su Shun’s voice cut through it all. At his order, Gavin pulled the Impossible Cube out of the Ebony Chamber. The red radiance came with it. He tried to back away with it, but Su Shun barked another order. The Jade Hand glowed, and Gavin froze into a statue.

  Alice struck. The rock smacked Su Shun’s head. It made a sound very much like a muffled bell. Alice had hit the metal part of his skull. Su Shun turned, an expression of surprise and anger on his half-brass face. With quick reflexes he caught her wrist and wrenched the rock away before she could hit again. Pain bit her arm, and she dropped to the rock. Frantic, Alice tried to scratch his eyes with her spider gauntlet’s claws, but he was a soldier and moved easily out of the way. He was laughing again, toying with her. How was it that he always gained the upper hand? She raged and fought, but he held her wrist and moved with her. It was like dancing with a snake. He was enjoying this. Behind him, Gavin stood motionless, holding the Impossible Cube. It had shifted from red to orange, and a low thrumming pushed against the air. At once Alice knew what was happening. She had seen the Impossible Cube run through the spectrum of colors before, from red to orange to yellow on up, and when it reached violet at the top, it would do something dreadful. It had torn time itself twice before. Now it held all the power of its infinite opposite.

  “Flood and plague will destroy us if you don’t cure the world.”

  The clockwork plague had created the Impossible Cube and the Ebony Chamber. Together, they could warp the forces that held the world in place, crack continents, and send floods all over the world. And it would
happen in a very few moments.

  Su Shun twisted Alice’s wrist, forcing her to her knees. Clearly he’d had enough. His other hand locked around the back of her neck, and she didn’t doubt he had the strength to snap the bones. His grip cut off her air. She gasped, trying to breathe.

  And then Alice reached up to the wire sword at Su Shun’s belt. Her fingers found the switch on the hilt and flicked it on. Before Su Shun quite knew what she was doing, she yanked. The vibrating blade slipped free, scoring Su Shun’s side. He screamed with the unexpected pain and let go. From her knees, Alice punched him in the groin with her gauntlet. Iron crunched through lacquer, and she felt the impact of metal on flesh all the way up her arm. Su Shun stiffened and dropped without a sound.

  Alice found herself standing above him, holding the vibrating sword and staring at the shallow gash she had opened up along his side. The cable from the hilt of the sword still led to the battery pack on Su Shun’s back. Su Shun made a feeble attempt to grab at Alice. With a snarl of anger that surprised even her, she kicked him in the meat half of his face. He went still. She stood over him, panting.

  Gavin remained where he was on the steps with the Impossible Cube. It glowed yellow now. Power radiated off it in waves, and the stones beneath Alice’s feet shuddered. A section of the red wall surrounding the Forbidden City crumbled and splashed into the moat. Alice looked at the Jade Hand at the end of Su Shun’s arm and then at Gavin. He wanted to move, but Su Shun’s last orders stopped him, though he panted with the effort of trying to defy it. His eyes flicked a glance at the Cube, then at the sky.