Dead Dukes Tell No Tales

by Catherine Stein

  The headmistress collected herself. “I can see you and your father have had excellent conversations regarding your future. Are you rested from the morning examinations? I would like to take you to the science room to take the engineering test. You’re a bit young, but I’d like to see what you can do regardless. We are always looking for mechanically-minded girls.”

  Sabine’s muscles tensed. Was that what this school did? Seek out girls with an aptitude for automechanology and use them to build machines for the criminal market? She couldn’t imagine any leader with sense would involve girls in secret projects and then release them back to their families and friends. Someone would talk. Which meant that most likely they were indoctrinating the girls from a young age with the intent of including them in the secret projects when they were both well-trained and fully committed to the cause. Rearing them to be criminals.

  Because a laboratory hidden inside a mountain couldn’t be anything but illegal. If the machines were meant for legitimate customers, they’d be in plain sight. Advertised to the world to proclaim the talents of the women who constructed them. Doing what Klara von Arx claimed the school wished to do.

  Lola and the headmistress departed, leaving the limping guard dragon to be wrangled by an unhappy servant. The moment the room was empty, Sabine darted from her hiding place and hurried toward the classroom wing. She’d stolen a school uniform and braided her hair into two looped plaits, the way many of the older girls wore it, but the disguise wouldn’t withstand any close interaction. The more she kept completely out of sight, the better.

  She couldn’t stray too far from Lola. No little girl deserved to be lured into the criminal life Sabine had grown up in. Especially not a sweet, smart kid with a father as devoted and loving as Cliff.

  Hartleigh, she corrected herself. This intimacy of first names had to stop. She wasn’t going to let herself get duped by his kind words and protective inclinations. His love for Lola was mucking with Sabine’s head. It called to that lonely little girl she’d once been, yearning for someone to love her and protect her. But she’d long since grown up, relying on no one but herself. Better to go it alone and know where you stand than to trust someone and endure their betrayal.

  The hall leading to the classrooms had no good places to hide. Sabine moved down the corridor, clutching the large book she could use to shield her face if anyone happened by. She pressed her ear to each closed door until she heard the voices of Lola and the headmistress.

  Sabine waited just long enough to be certain they were truly doing an examination, then headed upstairs to the dormitory. If they followed the morning’s pattern, von Arx would send Lola up to rest after the exam. Lola would play with the toys provided for the younger girls or maybe read a book until she grew bored and wandered off to explore.

  Sabine swiped a pillow and concealed herself under Lola’s bed, seizing the opportunity for a nap. After Hartleigh had left through the secret mountain exit, she’d spent hours retracing their steps, rechecking the rooms, looking for anything they might have missed. She’d examined every helmet in the whole damn castle, but had come up empty.

  The possibility that Redbeard might have learned what she was after and gotten to it first made Sabine’s skin crawl. She fell into an uneasy sleep, where past and present worries commingled in a confusion of disjointed dreams.

  Lola’s voice woke her. “I’m not tired.”

  “Your body may not be,” said an unfamiliar voice. Sabine peeked out from behind the curtain of bedding. An older student was ushering Lola into the room. “But the examinations are hard work for your mind.”

  “It wasn’t hard. It was fun. I got to take apart a machine and build a bridge out of sticks.”

  The older girl was unmoved. “Headmistress always insists we rest on examination days. You can play with the toys if you don’t want to sleep.”

  “I’m bored of dolls.” Lola moved her hands as if to stuff them into pockets, but the school uniform had none. “Is there sewing stuff?”

  The older girl walked to a chest of drawers, removed a box and handed it to Lola. “You can make a doll a new dress instead. Someone will come to fetch you when your father comes to visit. Don’t wander off this time. They won’t let you in the school if you can’t obey the rules.”

  The girl left without another word, closing the door firmly behind her. Lola opened the sewing kit, selected a piece of cloth, and cut it to the size she wanted. After half-a-dozen failed attempts, she finally threaded a needle, then began stitching the crooked square of cloth to the outside of her uniform skirt.

  Sabine grinned. The headstrong girl was making herself a pocket. A terrible, ugly pocket with loose, uneven stitches. It would probably fall off the first time she tried to put anything heavy in it. She’d be reprimanded and told to remove it the moment any of the faculty saw it. The pocket of a true pirate princess.

  Sabine let Lola finish her project, catching a few more moments of rest before whispering her name.

  Lola’s head jerked up. “Who said that?”

  Sabine poked her head out. “Good afternoon, Miss Kinsley.”

  “Miss La Capitaine? Why are you under my bed?”

  Sabine put a finger to her lips. “We must talk very quietly. I’ve been hiding in the castle, waiting to talk to you.”

  “Is Daddy here, too? Did you find the treasure?”

  “No and no. Your father should be here soon, but we didn’t find the right helmet.”

  Lola’s mouth turned down in a sad little pout. “Oh. Does that mean I have to stay here another day? I’m bored. They won’t let me explore by myself, and I don’t like these clothes.” She turned to show off her pocket. “But I fixed this dress a little bit. I wish I had my spiders. I can’t put the real ones in a pocket because they just crawl away. Did you know there are lots and lots of real spiders in castles? I have a big box full of them. There’s even a giant one in a cage in the science classroom. I named him Lucas. Did you look in his helmet?”

  Sabine’s eyebrows arched. “A giant spider with a helmet?”

  “Well, it looks like a helmet. It’s all banged-up and old looking and it was stuck in the cage on its side. Lucas crawls inside it and hides.”

  Sabine scurried out from beneath the bed. “Show me.”

  “Right now? But there’s girls in the classroom. They came in to do school things right after I did my machine test.”

  “I want to leave the moment your father arrives, and to do that, we need to look at that helmet. If the classroom is full of girls, we’ll need a distraction. Just how many spiders do you have in that box?”

  Lola fetched a box from the shelf that held her possessions. “This many.” She flipped the lid open for just an instant. What must have been one hundred or more spiders crawled over all sides of the box and atop one another. “I’ll let them go later. I promise. I know Daddy won’t let me bring them home.”

  “I think we should let them go now.” Sabine lifted her schoolgirl skirt and withdrew her watch from the pocket of her trousers. Nearly the top of the hour. Classes would be changing soon. “If we do this quickly, we might even be able to find our treasure before your father arrives. But we need to go now. Bring those spiders and pretend I’m one of the older girls sent to show you around.”

  Sabine and Lola hurried down to the classroom wing, waiting outside the science classroom until the door opened and students began to exit. They pressed close to the crowd. Sabine kept her head ducked to hide her face and shielded Lola from view with her body.

  “Now,” she whispered.

  Lola flung a handful of spiders up into the air. Several girls shrieked as arachnids rained down on them.

  “It’s only a spider,” a more level-headed girl commented.

  Lola threw another handful.

  “They’re everywhere! They’re falling from the ceiling!”

  The group erupted into chaos. Arachnophobic girls screamed and ran, batting at their clothes and pawing at their hair,
while other girls and one overwhelmed teacher struggled to calm them down or shoo the spiders away. Girls from nearby rooms also began to run and shout, as their schoolmates barreled into them.

  “Don’t hurt the spiders!” shouted one girl who seemed to have the same affinity for the creatures that Lola did.

  Sabine pointed to the doorway, and Lola dumped the rest of the spiders on the floor.

  “They’re coming from the classroom!” Sabine cried in German, pitching her voice as high as possible to sound young and terrified. The last of the girls fled, and she and Lola slipped inside and shut the door.

  Sabine grabbed a table and dragged it in front of the door to temporarily prevent anyone entering. She was betting heavily on this helmet being the one she needed, but she’d searched everywhere else. If this failed, she would have to resort to begging and bribery.

  “Here.” Lola grabbed Sabine’s arm and dragged her across the room to a large terrarium full of wilting greenery and a chunk of tarnished gold something.

  “That’s a helmet?”

  “Yeah. Look down from the top.” Lola climbed up on a chair and lifted the mesh top off the terrarium. “Or I can just pull it out.” She reached into the cage and removed the metal object. Cracked and dented, the Norse-style helmet brought an ear-to-ear grin to Sabine’s face. Lola tipped something out of the helmet before handing it over.

  “This is promising.”

  Sabine turned the helmet over in her hands, examining it both outside and in. One of the side pieces that protected the ear and face was badly cracked. She grabbed hold of it, tugging and flexing until it came off in her hand, sliding free from a thinner strip of metal underneath.

  “Almost as if it were meant to do that,” she murmured.

  The clue had been scratched directly into the metal: 5. Cat mummy. Hunterian. Sabine committed the message to memory, then drew her dagger and scored the metal until the words were obliterated.

  “Time to go, Lola. Let’s grab your things and go meet your father. If anyone questions why I’m here, we are saying he sent me to sneak in and prove the school was unsafe, and now he won’t allow you to stay.”

  She nodded and slipped something black and fuzzy into her makeshift pocket. Sabine didn’t ask. Lola could take whatever she wanted from this school. Only the clue truly mattered.

  Sabine pulled the table away from the door and listened before opening it. The noise had died down. The girls had presumably been herded off to class, and no one had yet tried to enter the science room.

  Sabine and Lola stepped into the hall, walking briskly toward the staircase. They had nearly reached it when a woman dressed in the austere ensemble of a teacher stepped out from a nearby doorway. Sabine froze in recognition.

  “Well, well,” the woman said, smirking as she drew a revolver from a hip pouch. “If it isn’t little Sabine the thief. Papa is going to be so disappointed in you.”

  22

  Cliff smiled at the girls skating circles on the small ice rink in the castle bailey. He hadn’t been skating in ages. This winter he had been too occupied with unexpected duke business to take Lola out on the ice.

  Next winter. We’ll make up for it.

  He stiffened. Did it ever get cold enough in San Francisco for ice skating? Probably not. Damn. Maybe not next winter after all. He needed to start accepting that his life would never be the same. They’d be okay. Lola would have the Heart of Ra and never have to worry about fuel again. They could always travel north to go skating.

  Cliff glanced at the unmoving guard dragons that flanked the main doors. Powered down for the day, they looked like ugly statues. Neither were the ones he and Sabine had encountered the night before. He shivered. The sooner he was done with this school, the better.

  Despite Sabine’s insistence, he’d hardly slept. He’d circled the village three times before the urge to storm the castle faded enough to let him return to the inn. Then he’d spent another hour packing their things. Her things. She’d only had a small bag with two changes of clothes, but he’d had to move them from the drawer to the bag. He’d had his hands on that sexy, emerald green corset and her tiny, powder blue knickers. Cliff had spent far too long thinking about those knickers. Small enough and light enough to be comfortable beneath trousers. Practical, though still feminine. He was dying to see what she looked like wearing nothing else.

  Packing her clothes had demolished his resolve to stop kissing her. When he had finally slept, his dreams had contained an alarming mixture of running from enemies and erotic encounters in dark locations. The moment they were back on the airship, he intended to pull Sabine aside for a talk. He would tell her, in a perfectly calm and rational manner, that he didn’t see any reason for denying their mutual attraction.

  The ‘don’t get involved with a friend’ rule rattled around in the back of his head, but he pretended he couldn’t hear it.

  He would suggest they find a quality hotel with a nice bed and spend a pleasant night together. They’d no doubt both feel immeasurably better the next morning. Sating their physical needs would help eliminate any distraction those desires were causing during their treasure hunt. It was all highly logical, he told himself.

  “Welcome, Your Grace.”

  Cliff’s brows knitted together. Why was the headmistress herself greeting him in the front hall? A man dressed in the simple, brown garments of a farm worker or manual laborer stood beside her. A castle caretaker, perhaps, or security guard?

  Another shiver ran through him, this one racing out to the very tips of all his limbs. Was this man the guard from last night? Did he somehow know of Cliff’s trespass? Or worse, had Sabine been caught?

  The door banged closed behind him and he jumped. From somewhere in the distance came the sounds of raised voices and running feet. Something was wrong. The hairs on his arms stood up. His heart thumped out a rapid rhythm. Fight, flee. Fight, flee. Fight, flee. He couldn’t move.

  “Follow me, please.” Despite the polite phrasing, the headmistress’ words were every bit a command.

  Several seconds passed before Cliff’s feet finally obeyed him and started moving. His mind raced even as his body plodded, turning over possible scenarios. Von Arx led him past the visitors’ room where they had dined that first evening, her hired muscle trailing behind. She opened the door to an austere office space, uncluttered and simply furnished.

  “Is there some problem?” Cliff fought to keep his voice even and to relax the clenching muscles of his body.

  “Please, sit.” The headmistress gestured at a chair, but Cliff shook his head.

  “No, thank you. I’d rather just get to the point so I can see Lola.”

  Please tell me she dropped a spider in a teacher’s lap. Tell me she’s been climbing the suits of armor or playing pirate with antique swords. Tell me she’s unfit for this school and you want me to take her away immediately.

  “I’ve declared the examinations finished. I am giving Lola a place in the Institute.”

  His heart skipped a beat. “I’m afraid we are no longer interested.”

  “You may not be, but we here at the Institute are extremely interested. She will excel here, and be sheltered from your current difficulties.”

  Cliff pressed a fist to his belly, where his stomach was twisting in knots. “No. We’re leaving. Excuse me.”

  He spun to leave, but the guard’s meaty hand clamped down on his arm. “The lady is not finished speaking.”

  “You don’t understand, being a man,” von Arx continued. “There are few opportunities available in this world for women of brains and talent.” Her voice rose, growing louder and more impassioned. “This school will allow your daughter a choice: strike out on her own after graduation, or join a confederation of women dedicated to creating a new order where their abilities will see them rise to be the rulers God intended.” She flattened her palms on her desk, leaning toward him, her eyes gleaming with furious intensity. “She has the potential. She can be one of us.”r />
  What the hell? Was she trying to raise a generation of female dictators? Was everyone mad?

  “This isn’t the sort of environment I want for her. I’m sorry. We’ll be leaving now.” He tried to shake himself free of the guard’s grip, but the man held fast.

  “That will not be possible,” the headmistress replied, her voice calm but determined. “We have visitors today who wish to speak with you. And with your pirate friend, who I assume is here somewhere? You needn’t worry about your daughter. I promise we will take better care of her than you possibly could.”

  “Over my dead body,” Cliff snarled.

  Von Arx shook her head. “Seems a bit extreme.” She looked to the guard. “Becker, please escort His Grace off the premises. There have been quite enough disruptions for the day. Our guests can speak with him outside. If he cooperates, I may allow him to say a farewell to the girl.”

  The big man hauled Cliff out the door. Cliff raised a hand to take a swing at the man’s face, but a second thug waiting in the corridor lunged, grabbing him around the middle and knocking his arm aside.

  “Let me go, goddammit!”

  Cliff squirmed helplessly, outnumbered and outmuscled. He thrust his hand into his coat, fumbling for the signal flare the crew of Die Fledermaus had given him when they’d picked up his belongings that morning.

  “I won’t let you kidnap my daughter, you bastards!”

  One of the men snatched at the flare, but Cliff was faster. He yanked the cap off with his teeth, squeezing his eyes shut. The flare popped and sparked and both Cliff’s captors screamed. Cliff jerked and twisted, kicking out and thrusting with his elbows, hitting any flesh he could reach. He hit one of the men with the flare, and the man howled in agony.

  Blinded and in pain, the men lost their grips, and Cliff broke free. He tore down the hall, holding the flare behind him to protect his own eyes. He ran to the front gate, heaved the door open, and hurled the flare as far out into the bailey as he could. He prayed the crew would see it.