Clockwork Heart

  “Oh.” Alister paused, and Taya thought he seemed taken aback. “But, Viera, surely an icarus…”

  “Should be treated with as much respect as any other guest I might invite to dinner,” Viera said, her voice stern.

  “Of course. I didn’t mean any offense,” he said, turning to Taya. “I simply hoped to enjoy your company a little longer.”

  Taya looked from him to Viera. The chance to spend more time with Alister, alone in a carriage, both tempted and frightened her. She was afraid it would be all too easy to forget her good intentions if she were alone with him in the dark.

  “I’ll do whatever you think is best,” she said to her hostess. “I don’t know anything about propriety. I’m used to flying myself home.”

  Both of the exalteds laughed. Viera took her hand, pulling her up from the chair.

  “It would be best if you went home alone,” she said, kindly. “My cousin is a gentleman, but he isn’t as careful of reputations as he should be.”

  “I’m very careful of reputations,” Alister protested. “I’m a decatur. I have to be!”

  “You’re careful with your own reputation, perhaps.” Viera raised an eyebrow. “Now say your goodbyes while I send for a carriage.” She squeezed Taya’s hand and strode off.

  Alister watched her leave.

  “Dear Vee. She’s so protective. I suspect I owe my position on the Council to her,” he murmured. “I’m certain she made Caster vote for me.”

  “Wouldn’t he have voted for you anyway?”

  “Perhaps.” He turned and hooked his arm through hers. “May I escort you to the door this time, my swan?”

  “I’d like that,” she said, smiling up at him. She was glad Viera had told her to take another carriage. She could flirt now without considering where it would lead later.

  “One thing, Taya Swan,” Alister said, as they reached the foyer. She paused. He looked serious. “Please leave the investigating to the lictors. I would be devastated if you were hurt.”

  She gazed up at his face, touched by his concern. But what if he were the one hurt? If Cristof was involved in something illegal, Alister’s position on the Council could be in danger.

  “Taya Icarus.” Caster Octavus stepped into the foyer. “Viera has informed me that you are taking your leave of us.”

  Taya shifted mental gears with an effort, turning and bowing, her palm on her forehead.

  “I apologize for leaving so soon, Exalted, but we icarii need to get off to an early start in the morning.”

  “I understand. Thank you very much for joining us, and thank you again for your brave rescue.” He clasped her hand. “The Octavus family owes you a debt, and it will not be forgotten.”

  “I consider the debt repaid,” she protested. “Tonight has been… well, I never imagined being invited to something like this.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. Tonight simply makes public our gratitude.”

  Taya studied him, her hand still in his. The white-haired decatur looked serious. This wasn’t casual good manners, she realized. Exalted Octavus was making her a promise.

  She slipped her hand from his and pressed her palm against her forehead again, bowing more deeply this time.

  “Thank you, Exalted.”

  To her surprise, when she straightened, he returned the bow.

  “Fly safely, Icarus.”

  “Yes, but not tonight,” Viera added, as she entered the foyer. “Our carriage is waiting outside.” A servant followed, holding Taya’s borrowed velvet cloak and a heavy fur. “A cloak of feathers might be more appropriate, but it wouldn’t be nearly as practical. Here, I’m giving this to you. I hope it will keep you warm this winter and for many winters to come.” She handed Taya the fur cloak.

  Taya’s fingers sank into the thick beaver pelts, each one worth a month of her salary. She opened her mouth to protest, then closed it again when she saw Viera’s expression.

  “Allow me.” Alister took it and wrapped it around her shoulders. The inside was lined with soft doeskin, warm against her flesh. He regarded her with mock criticism. “I approve of the brown against her hair, cousin, but fur doesn’t flatter her dress. Now she looks more like a Demican chieftain than a swan queen.”

  Taya ignored him, running her hands over the fur. It probably had come from Demicus, she thought, overwhelmed.

  “It’s gorgeous. I don’t know where I’ll be able to wear it.”

  “You should wear it to the market and anywhere else you may need to go this winter,” Viera said, practically. She reached forward and fastened the neck. Taya looked down and saw that the gold clasp had the Octavus sigil worked into it. “Good night, Taya Icarus. Fly safely.”

  “Good night, Exalteds,” Taya said again, draping her velvet cloak over her arms. The fur was heavy on her shoulders, but it was a solid, comforting weight.

  They walked her out to the carriage and waved as she was driven away. Taya watched until the lights of Estate Octavus vanished around a corner, then let the window curtain fall and pulled her new cloak around her.

  Pins, she mused, staring into the darkness. Tomorrow I’m going to find Pins and see if I can track down the Torn Cards. For the Octavuses … and for Alister.

  “Pins?” Pyke set down The Watchman and narrowed his eyes. “Why?”

  “Someone at the party bought something from her, and I want to find out what,” Taya explained, warming her fingers on her second cup of tea. Cassi had made her stay awake to talk about the party after she’d gotten home, so she was working on only five hours of sleep and relying on the bitter beverage to keep her eyes open. “Come on. You know her, don’t you? I can tell.”

  “Yeah. She attends the same Inquiry and Liberation meetings I go to.” Pyke still sounded suspicious.

  “Spirits, Pyke. I can’t believe the Council hasn’t thrown you out of the eyrie yet,” Cassi exclaimed, spreading jam over her breakfast roll. “Isn’t I&L some kind of reactionary group?”

  “You don’t know anything about politics, do you?” Pyke looked disgusted. “It’s a free-trade group. Did you know Ondinium levies a ten-percent import tax on spices from Si’sier, but when we send—”

  “Pyke. Please. Don’t.” Cassi waved a hand at him. “I don’t care. You know, you’d be a lot more fun if you took up a real hobby, like darts.”

  “You like men who play darts?” Pyke asked, dubiously.

  “It was just an example. Although I’m pretty good at darts.”

  “Hello? Pins?” Taya waved a hand between them. “Please, Pyke, just give me an address. I’m not going to cause her any trouble.”

  “How can I be sure? You’re hobnobbing with exalteds and decaturs now. Maybe they’re turning you into their spy.”

  Taya rubbed her forehead.

  “More like the opposite. They said she was dangerous and I should stay away. Look, I just want to ask a couple of questions, that’s all. Then I’m gone. I won’t tell anyone I saw her, and I won’t tell her how I got her address.”

  “Dangerous?” Pyke rubbed his chin. “I didn’t know she was dangerous.”

  “Pyke!”

  “Taya, just go to Dispatch and look her up,” Cassi advised. “It’ll be faster than trying to get an answer out of tall, dark, and paranoid here.”

  “I’m not paranoid, I’m just cautious.” Pyke frowned. “It’s not a secret, I guess. She owns a copperwares shop on Operand and Cascade. There’s a big beaten-copper basin in the front window. You can’t miss it.”

  “Thanks.” Taya finished her tea and stood. “Well, off to work. You two coming?”

  At the dock, she and Cassi pulled on their flight leathers and strapped themselves into their rigs. When they were ready, they joined the line at the dispatch office to punch in. Taya dropped off a thank-you note to be deliver
ed to Estate Octavus.

  “Nice of you two to join us today,” the dispatcher said dryly as they hung their time cards back on the rack. “All finished playing dress-up?”

  “Better be polite,” Cassi warned him. “Taya has friends in high places.”

  “Yeah, I get a nosebleed just looking at her.” The dispatcher handed them their morning’s delivery satchels. “Fly safely, ladies. It’s cold and clear, but the diispira will be kicking up again this morning, so mind your tailsets.”

  “We will.” Taya picked up the bag and began sorting through it as they left the warm office and joined the line at the icarus flight docks. The docks were long wood and iron strips that extended far out beyond the cliffs and provided clean drops down into the wind.

  Morning breezes tugged at their wings, and sunlight turned the jagged mountain peaks around them a warm gold. To the left, a group of seven- and eight-year-old children were doing warm-up exercises, their training wings giving their jumping jacks a little extra lift. Taya thought of Ariq and grinned.

  “I’ve got deliveries all over Secundus,” Cassi said, buttoning her bag closed again and hooking it to her belt. “How about you?”

  “Some back-and-forth on Tertius. Shouldn’t take too long.”

  “Lunch?”

  “Maybe. But if I’m not here by half-past, I got caught up in other business.”

  “Business like a handsome decatur?” Cassi teased. Taya laughed.

  “I’m not planning on it, but who knows?”

  Their names were called. Cassi waved. “Fly safely!”

  “You, too!”

  Flying in autumn and winter was a chilly endeavor, although the capital’s blanket of smoke and soot always thinned out in the cooler weather. The air over Tertius was never entirely clear, but today Taya could see the rest of the city as she wove between towers and factory smokestacks, delivering messages. Once she flew over the street where Cristof’s shop was located. She circled, but its door was closed. She flew on.

  By nine she’d finished her deliveries. In theory she was supposed to head back up to the dispatch office to pick up another bag, but instead she flew to the metal wares markets in Secundus and landed on Cascade Street, locking her wings upright.

  Pins’ shop was easy to find, but its door had been sealed shut with black wax and a lictor’s printed ‘no trespassing’ order.

  She stared, feeling a chill that had nothing to do with the autumn morning. Then she turned.

  A heavyset man across the street was wiping the soot off his window and watching her in its reflection. He nodded when he saw her looking at him. He had the same black circle castemark as her father, marking him as a famulate craftsman.

  “If you’ve a message to deliver, you’ll have to take it to the lictors,” he called out.

  “Is that Pins’ shop?” She crossed the street.

  “Yup. Her daughter found her dead this morning, didn’t she? Came in to open up and started screaming.” The man leaned against his doorframe. “I sent my boy off to the lictors as soon as I figured out what was going on. Murdered, that’s what they say.”

  Taya folded her arms over her chest.

  “When?”

  “Last night. Guess I would’ve been the last one to have seen her, then.” He sounded proud of the fact. “She waved good night when I locked up around six, she did. Must’ve been working late. I waved back and went inside. She was killed sometime after that.”

  She hated to ask, but she had to know.

  “How did she die?”

  “Strangled. With something thin, that’s what the lictors said. I overheard ’em when I was giving my statement, didn’t I?”

  Taya thought of the men who’d mentioned Pins’ name the night before. They’d been strong, rough-looking types. She didn’t have any trouble imagining one of them strangling a woman.

  But that would mean that Cristof was involved in murder. Maybe not directly, but…

  Had he come to his cousin’s party to give himself an alibi?

  “So, if you’ve any message for her, you’ve got to take it to the lictor’s station on Teague,” the craftsman pointed out again.

  “All right. Thank you.” Taya turned and began walking toward Teague Street, her shoulders hunched.

  Now she didn’t just have a suspicion. Now she had a chain of coincidence. Cristof had gotten something from Pins, Taya had overheard Pins’ name, and Pins had been murdered. To stop her from talking to Taya?

  She rubbed her gloved hands over her cheeks. She should go straight to the lictors to tell them what she’d heard. Lieutenant Amcathra would listen to her.

  But if she talked to Amcathra, he’d go to Cristof for answers, and the ripples from that inquiry would inevitably reach Alister. Taya grimaced. If his brother were a murderer, Alister was going to be affected one way or the other. But if she told him first, he’d have a chance to control the damage to his family name.

  Besides, she rationalized, he’s a decatur. He outranks the lictors.

  She found an open side street, spread her wings, and began to run.

  “Come in!”

  Taya opened the door. Alister sat at the table in the center of the room, his repaired clock and a stack of books shoved to one side as he pored over a stack of papers. His exalted’s mask was propped against a leg of the table.

  He smiled when he saw her.

  “As I predicted, my swan has become a hawk again. Good morning, Taya. Have you come to me with a pair of wings, so we can go skydancing together?”

  “I have news,” she said, ignoring his teasing. “Pins was murdered last night.”

  He stopped, his smile fading. Taya took another step inside, then remembered herself and bowed, palm on forehead. They weren’t at a party anymore. This was business.

  “You went to visit her? After I told you she was dangerous?”

  “I know you didn’t want me to, but I had to know how she was involved.” Taya looked up at him. “She’s dead. Somebody killed her last night.”

  Alister gestured her to a seat.

  “Tell me everything you know.”

  Taya filled him in on the neighboring shopkeeper’s gossip. Alister shook his head, his green eyes dark with concern. When he looked like that, serious instead of dazzling, she saw a closer resemblance between him and his brother. Both of them were intense, focused people. The difference was that Alister used his intensity to charm, while his brother used it to repel.

  “So,” she finished, “I decided to tell you. You said the Council had been keeping its eyes on her.”

  “Yes. We suspected her of being in alliance with the Torn Cards. You are familiar with the Cards’ ideology, aren’t you?”

  “They’re anti-Engine terrorists. They think programs are infringing on our freedoms.”

  “Yes.” He looked down at the papers in front of him. “I have read the report on the wireferry accident. A torn copper punch card was found jammed in a weld. That’s their sign.”

  “Do you think they were after the decatur, or your cousin?”

  “Caster, almost certainly. It was just an accident that Viera and Ariq were in the car instead of him.”

  “But why would the Torn Cards hate him?”

  Alister sighed.

  “There is an important vote coming up soon. Caster was initially against it, but he changed his mind. And he has a great deal of influence over other decaturs. Perhaps the Torn Cards learned about it.”

  “What kind of vote?”

  “I don’t know if I can tell you.”

  Taya bit her lip, reminded again of the difference between their castes. Alister looked up at her, and his expression softened.

  “I apologize. It’s just that this has been a controversial topic. It’s an experimental
program, and we don’t want the newspapers getting wind of it until we have had a chance to give it a trial run. That is, assuming it gets approved by Council.”

  “Is it one of those thinking programs you were talking about?”

  “Well … it does analyze behavioral patterns. I suppose I can tell you, Taya. You are an icarus and accustomed to dealing with secrets … but the Council doesn’t want any information about this getting out until we are certain the program will work. Of course, if the Torn Cards already know about it…”

  “You can trust me,” she asserted. “I’m an icarus.”

  “I asked you not to get involved with Pins, but you went down to meet her, anyway.”

  “That wasn’t a secret. And besides, you didn’t ask me. You warned me.”

  His lips quirked up in a shadow of his usual smile.

  “I should have known a hunting hawk would ignore danger.”

  “So,” Taya said, “what’s this vote about?”

  The smile faded again as Alister leaned back in his chair. “I’ve written a program called Clockwork Heart. It’s meant to help people determine whether or not someone’s going to be a good match for them. Romantically, at first, although I think it has applications in business and politics, as well.”

  “Romantically?” Taya wrinkled her nose. “You mean, it’s going to tell us who we can marry?”

  “No! No, I have no intention of taking away anybody’s freedom of choice,” Alister said hastily. “But let’s assume you’ve fallen in love with someone. You would both take a survey and we would run your response cards through Clockwork Heart. The program would compare your responses to one hundred key variables I’ve isolated from a multivariate analysis of a thousand successful marriages and a thousand unsuccessful ones. It would then build a series of statistical models according to the predictive parameters we’ve developed and calculate the likelihood of a stable marriage between the two of you under various hypothetical socioeconomic conditions. The greater the number of conditions under which your marriage is predicted to remain intact, the higher the confidence level would be that you’re making the right choice.”