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Steampunk Tales, Volume 1

Page 10

by Ren Cummins


  His serious expression dissolved into a wide smile. “Girls, I’m breaking you out of here. We leave immediately.”

  “What?” both girls echoed.

  “We’re twelve, Cousins!” Kari said angrily.

  “Eleven,” corrected Rom. “But almost twelve.”

  “Okay, almost twelve,” Kari conceded. “Either way, we can’t be on our own until we’re fourteen.”

  “You’re correct,” he said. He was annoying when he was smug. And he was smug far too often for Rom’s liking.

  Rom rolled her eyes. “All right, spill it. What’s going on?”

  Shrugging, Cousins answered. “You’ve been adopted. Both of you.”

  “Adopted?” Kari moved forward, eying him suspiciously as well. “By who?”

  “Whom,” he responded.

  “By whom, then?” Kari repeated, taking another threatening step closer to him.

  “It’s not my place to say,” he answered flippantly. “Besides, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” He turned around, tossing an envelope over his shoulder at the girls. “But they did tell me to give you this. It doesn’t explain much, though.”

  He opened the door. “I’ll wait for you both downstairs. Don’t be too long, I’ve got other errands to run today.”

  The two girls continued to stare at the door after he’d closed it behind him.

  Kari shook her head, annoyed both at how much delight Cousins seemed to be having at their expense. “If you don’t hit him, I will.”

  Rom nodded absently. She was already opening the envelope and pulling out the paper inside. Written in a very elegant hand, it read:

  Mss. Rom and Kari.

  I apologize that this must come so suddenly to you, and under so auspicious of circumstances. However, the luxury of watching you both from afar is no longer an option, and I must bring you closer so that I might both prepare and protect you from what is to come.

  I am making all the arrangements so that you may both reside in my home, should you be amenable to this, and will ensure that all your needs are met; in exchange for which, I shall see to it that you are both apprenticed into appropriate skills, and, additionally, given the opportunity to see your true talents grow and blossom.

  It is known to me that both of you have secrets about you – wondrous secrets, the understanding of which should become a priority for you both and which few other than I could either understand or provide that teaching.

  Cousins will bring you to my shop; here you will meet me and you may then decide if you wish to accept this offer.

  Sincerely,

  Goya Parva, Apothecary

  She read the letter a second time, and handed it to Kari while she turned back to look down at Mulligan. He remained sitting on the bed, regarding her curiously.

  Kari read the letter and looked back at Rom, her eyes wide. “Is this for real?” she asked.

  Rom could only shrug and furrow her brow. After so many years of trying to balance the most intangibly enduring quantity of hope necessary to tolerate her life in the orphanage, she found herself confronted with the possibility of liberation. Still, if the Matrons believed it, then maybe it was really happening. She sighed, shaking her head softly. Rom didn’t know how she’d expected this day to be, and now that it was finally here, she was uncertain on how to feel about it.

  “Well, Mully, I guess we don’t have to worry about whether or not the Matrons were going to let me keep you after all.” She smiled. “Do you think this Goya person is all right?”

  “Perhaps,” he offered, “we should at least meet her and make sure she’s not that same lady who tried to keep us in that world of Spirits.”

  Rom nodded. She’d already thought of that, but aside from considering it, hadn’t gone much further – the possibility of being free from this orphanage was just too tempting an opportunity.

  “We’ll go meet her and see for ourselves.”

  “I agree,” he responded. “Can I help you pack?”

  Rom laughed. “This dress and you. I’m packed.”

  He hopped up on her shoulder and they turned around to see Kari, staring at them both in shock.

  “What?” they asked in unison.

  Kari pointed at Mully. “He…. Talks?”

  Mully shook his head. “What is wrong with the animals here? Have none of them any manners at all?”

  Rom stuck her tongue out. “It’s not like that, they just don’t talk. They’re actually really mean, too,” she added thoughtfully. “They attack people – a lot of people have been hurt or killed by them.”

  Mully frowned. “That’s bad. We should find one of them, and ask them why they’re doing that.”

  “That’s what got her killed – well, almost killed – in the first place!” Kari nearly yelled.

  Rom shook her head. “No, I was dead. But,” she conceded, “not completely dead.” She took a look at the horror on Kari’s face, and added. “Sorry. I’ll explain later. But, anyway, I’m all better, now.”

  Mully turned back to look at Kari. “I’m not saying we should go now – besides, she needs to learn a lot, first. And,” he added to Rom, “you won’t believe all the things you’re going to be able to do.”

  Kari brought a pair of books she’d been given by Professor Theremin, and the few coins given them previously by Cousins, but otherwise, the two girls had precious little else between them in terms of personal possessions. As they walked down the stairs towards the main floor, several of the children watched them pass. In Oldtown-Against-The-Wall, relative poverty was more the norm than financial excess – so it was rare that a family could afford to adopt a child, and the general expectation of the children was that a life in one of the many orphanages would only end when they were old enough or skilled enough to secure an apprenticeship with one of the craftsmen or trades schools in the town. Typically, these apprenticeships were only offered to children in their mid to late teens – but word had already spread that both Rom and Kari were being accepted far younger than was normal. But if any doubted, they took one look at Rom in her new dress and assumed it to be proof that the rumors were true.

  There was no great affair made of their leaving – no tearful goodbyes, no promises to speak again soon, none of the anticipated taunting from Milando or his pack of bullies. Rom and Kari tried to look straight ahead and not react to the painful expressions of envy from the other children. Whatever joy the other children might have felt for the two girls was swallowed up by the despairing realization that they went to fill two spaces now denied the rest of them. Their freedom, effectively, meant a rejection – or at least postponement – of their own.

  But in the pair of minutes it took them to descend the stairs, the demeanors of the two girls were transformed from hopeless and common abandoned children into the embodiment of the very dreams possessed by nearly every one of the remaining orphans. Many minutes passed following the reverberating boom of the opening and closing of the main doors before the children’s attention could return to their lessons.

  Chapter 11: The Apothecary

  The only times Rom and Kari had left the orphanage in the past, they were either running errands for the Matrons or breaking curfew – either way, they’d never had the opportunity to simply walk and look around without fearing the inevitable repercussions for their tardiness. But today was special in many countless ways, and they surrendered to the feeling. Today, they saw it now not just as a momentary, fleeting escape from the life in the Wall’s shadow – but embracing the unfolding reality that their new lives had led them out into the light.

  They took it all in: the sights and sounds of the market with its busied haggling and vendors’ urgings to sample this, try that; the rusty smells from the smithy, and the rhythmic clanging of metal on metal; even the discordant attempts at rhythm from several neighboring conservatories with all its young musical students seemed more magical, somehow. They were not merely passing through the town, now. Now, they were a part of it,
and they hoped the memories would remain embedded in the fabric of their clothes, intertwine within their hair, and burn themselves into their eyes forever.

  Cousins seemed to understand this, and he took a more roundabout path towards their destination; he led them past the markets and past several bakeries – even managed to acquire a handful of sweet breads for the three of them, which they ate while they walked. Other than a brief exchange of thanks, the three continued on in relative silence. Kari and Rom laughed and pointed, generally delighted with everything there was to see and soak in. Eventually, Cousins led them from the market district and into the lesser traveled areas through the crafts neighborhood and into the segments reserved for the sciences.

  When the people of Oldtown referred to “sciences”, it included a far range of skills: from atmology to zymology, they had carried the knowledge with them from their former home within the wall. Down through the generations of cast out citizens, they passed this wisdom along through a process of apprenticeships; as children were observed to have a certain predilection for one science or art or skill, they were given the opportunity to study under accomplished adults and receive the necessary education to continue in that trade.

  The arts included music, design, theater and several fields of esoteric energy evaluation, as well as the three divination philosophies: hydromancy, chronomancy and geomancy. These tended towards a philosophical and abstract approach to understanding and expressing the world, and favored people who followed free-flowing inspiration and had a poetic sense of communication.

  The sciences were more structured, based on time-tested and repeatable processes, relying less on the individual interpretation and nebulous processes and more on logic, patterns and pragmatic methodology. The buildings in this area were a definitive reflection on this way of thinking, as well: where the purely esoteric Arts had their buildings designed with as many curves and delicate ornamentations as their foundations could bear, the Sciences’ buildings were comprised of straight lines and definitive structures. There appeared to have been an unspoken agreement to design each college to follow the tenets of their philosophy in as holistic a manner as possible, from the first foundation stone to the most recent word spoken in their classrooms.

  Of all the colleges, however, the “Steam Labs” took up the largest geographical space, encompassing several blocks’ worth of buildings. At its highest point, it rose a mere three stories – still many feet lower than some of the other buildings, but seemed taller in terms of implied importance: the other buildings in its immediate vicinity seemed diminished through some sort of optical illusion caused by the many pipe-lined minarets and gouts of steam that erupted and faded into the sky above.

  The three children passed a small group of men wearing thick protective clothing. Particularly the mitts and boots appeared to be aggressively shielded, and the suits were fitted with compressed and barely transparent goggles, though the cowls were pulled back from their faces, currently. Cousins, seeing the two girls’ expressions, stepped close enough for them to hear.

  “Those are some of the pipe sentries. They work on the main lines, fixing breaches and tending to the repairs in the active conduits.”

  Rom thought back on some of the few bits she remembered from Professor Theremin’s discussions on the dangers of steam power; she’d felt the heat emanating from even the insulated pipes and some of the faint pressure release clouds at the ends of the line, but couldn’t imagine the intensity that built up in the main lines. She looked again at the hardened expressions of the men – they looked like soldiers, she thought.

  As they passed one of the workshops, Rom caught the sound of a faint gasp from Kari; the front wall was segmented in a series of square-foot windows, allowing them to see inside while technicians worked within on a structure of pipes and valves easily ten times their size. Several of the windows were blurred by copious amounts of the condensation which generally frequented these labs as they worked to further increase the functional efficiency of steam as a source of their city’s power.

  “They’re not using carbon,” Kari said. “It looks like it would be completely smokeless. Either that or they’re working on cycling the output back into the processing chambers…”

  Rom stopped herself from rolling her eyes. The debate of “steam versus smoke” was a favorite of Kari’s – she often went on and on about a perfect science which allowed engines to be powered on pure energy – powering themselves without burning the air. Rom remembered the recent visit by Professor Theremin to their lesson, and how excited he’d been by the recent advances made by the Atmologists.

  Cousins paused several feet away, noticing that the two girls had paused to watch the technicians. “Come on, girls. You can come back and watch the airbrains later. We’re running late.”

  Rom pulled Kari away from the windows, ignoring the small whine of protest from her friend. Mulligan chuckled lightly on her shoulder. “Don’t worry,” he whispered. “In a couple of years, she’ll be like that with boys.”

  Rom shushed him and they caught up to Cousins, who was pointing towards a small building one block up. Over the main door on the corner of the building, a small hand-painted sign gently swung in the late morning air that read: “Apothecary.”

  “What’s an apothecary?” Rom whispered to Kari.

  Kari frowned. “It’s a person who stuffs dead animals.”

  Mully shook his head. “No, that’s a taxidermist. An apothecary deals in potions and chemicals.”

  “You’re right,” Cousins called back over his shoulder. He turned around, looking at Rom. “You might want to keep him a bit quieter, by the way. A talking beast like him would catch a lot of money in the right markets.” He winked at Mulligan. “Just a friendly bit of advice.”

  Mully nodded and curled closer into Rom’s hair.

  Cousins returned the nod and walked them the rest of the way to the door. He held it open for them, letting the small bell ring cheerily as they entered and ring again as the door closed behind them.

  Rom had only been here once before; she’d been sent here to pick up a remedy for one of the sicknesses that had been going around the other children last winter. But she was on an errand, so she did as instructed – said nothing, touched nothing, said nothing but delivered an envelope and waited quietly for the response before running back to the matrons. So, effectively, this was her first real visit to the shop. She did remember the smell, however.

  It was a pungent mix of unknown and unknowable ingredients that made both girls sneeze instantly. Their embarrassment was met with a gentle laugh from across the room.

  “I can always tell when someone new comes in, the first thing they do is sneeze,” the young woman said. She was perhap as old as the two girls put together, with long red hair drawn back in a handful of small braids, most of which were pulled together behind her head by a soft blue headband. Her green eyes sparkled with laughter when Kari pointed at her.

  “You! You were there last night, when - -“

  Cousins patted Kari on the shoulder as he edged past her. “Miss Kari, allow me to introduce Briseida, the apprentice who runs this little shop. Lady Briseida, may I present Misses Hikari and Rom – better known to me as Kari and Rom. And the little grey creature with Miss Rom is her companion…?”

  “Um, Mully – well, Mulligan,” Rom stammered. “But he likes Mully.”

  Briseida moved past Cousins with a cordial nod of her head, and gracefully gave a slight curtsy to the two girls, and a wink to Mulligan. The randomly assorted beads in her braids clicked and clacked melodiously. Mully lifted his head and sniffed, then lay back on Rom’s shoulder, purring with gentle approval.

  “Mully thinks you’re okay,” she smiled.

  Briseida looked them both over and cocked an eyebrow. “Well, the first thing we need to do is show you your rooms and get you some new clothes.”

  Kari looked at Rom for confirmation. “Rooms?” she asked, repeating the word and emphasizing t
he plurality. “Like, more-than-one-room rooms?”

  The older woman smiled and nodded.

  “We’d have our own rooms?” Kari asked again.

  “Yes, Kari. We have a few spare rooms upstairs, enough for you both to have your own space.”

  Kari gripped Rom’s arm. “This is so strange,” she whispered.

  Cousins, overhearing her comment, laughed out loud. “You’ll love these two, Bree,” he said. “They’re so easy to please.”

  Kari smacked him in the arm as they passed.

  Briseida walked them both out the door at the back of the shop, calling over her shoulder for Cousins to mind the shop for a few moments. He protested, mumbling something about having real work to do, but she ignored him.

  She walked the two girls down a gently lit hallway and turned to ascend a carpeted stairway. The darkly stained banisters were finely polished wood and simply carved, and Rom couldn’t help but smile as she felt it pass beneath the palm of her hand. Beneath their feet, the boards of the stairs creaked slightly, but were mostly muffled by the carpeting.

  At the top of the stairs, they turned on the landing and Briseida pointed to two open doors. “These are your rooms, I’ll let you two decide which one belongs to which. I chose two with an adjoining door between your closets. Also, at the end of the hall, that last door is the bathroom. You’ll still have to share,” she explained, “but there are only the four of us, so it shouldn’t be so bad.”

  Rom and Kari nodded, trying to imagine what it would be like to have to share a bathroom with only three other people.

  “I had some clothing brought over this morning, I had to guess your sizes, but we can have Sorena – she’s a seamstress friend of mine – come back later in the week to do a proper measuring and get you both some dresses that fit you better.”

 

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