Steampunk Tales, Volume 1

by Ren Cummins

  And right there, only an arm’s breadth ahead of him, was Mully.

  She nearly screamed with delight, but realized she only had moments to act. They both seemed to be moving more slowly, but still steadily towards her. Rom reached out with the crook, and aimed it for the underside of the mundaline’s jaw, and held out her hand towards Mulligan.

  In the last possible second, she wedged the base of the crook into the ground and aimed the broad, curving end against the mundaline as she pulled Mulligan away and threw them both to the ground and out of the mundaline’s reach.

  They hit the soil and there was a loud crack indicating the collision between the mundaline and the crook. Rom rolled back up onto her feet, holding Mulligan securely in her arms. She blinked – it must have been her imagination, because everything seemed back to normal now. Absently, her hand brushed the pocket of her black dress which held the oddly-comforting silver watch. A coolness she briefly felt there set the hairs on her arm to standing.

  A cloud of dust and dirt had filled the air. Waving it quickly away with one hand, Rom saw her shepherd’s crook and picked it up. She nodded appreciatively in that it seemed no worse for wear.

  “Be careful, Rom,” Mulligan cautioned. “He’s tough and clever.”

  “I know,” she said. Beyond the dust, she could see it now, rising unsteadily back up onto its feet. The impact had clearly injured him, but he wasn’t done yet. It shook its head and tried to growl, but coughed out a quantity of dark green matter onto the soil.

  Seeing Rom, however, it bared its fangs and jumped at her again.

  Rom sprung in a hands-free cartwheel out of its path, her staff arcing up and around to loop around the end of its tail. As he landed past her, she stood quickly and pulled hard on the staff, tearing the remainder of the quills free.

  The creature howled and spun quickly on the girl – she timed her jump as it charged her perfectly and brought the bottom of the staff down on its head and vaulted out of its reach to land behind it.

  “You’re just making him angry,” Mulligan observed.

  “Sorry. I’m still getting the hang of – whoops – this,” she said, springing again out of its way as it doubled back towards her.

  “Still waiting for a plan,” Mulligan mentioned.

  “Hush! Distracting me.”

  It half-leaped at her again, but then turned abruptly, catching her as she had tried to dodge him, and pinning her to the ground. She had just barely managed to pull her staff up to catch beneath his paws, keeping his claws from slicing her open. Its fetid breath stank of old socks and an open sewer.

  “Sorry about this,” she winced, drawing her boots up beneath him and kicking him hard in the stomach. The force of the kick sent him flying, off balance, to land several feet away. They were both on their feet at once, but with Rom looking much better off in terms of injuries.

  The impact of landing upside down from her powerful kick appeared to have injured one of his wings, which was now folded in an obviously abnormal direction.

  “Oh, no, I’m so sorry,” she said sincerely. The demeanor of the beast seemed different now, as well. He was pacing nervously, as of confused by the painful shock of his broken wing. The farmers seemed to notice this as well, and let out a loud cheer. They ran closer, holding up their field tools. Rom had seen the tools many times before – this was the first time she had ever realized they made effective weapons. But she knew that all too often the wounded beasts were the most deadly.

  She held up the staff between herself and the oncoming farmers. “Stay back,” she commanded. To her surprise, they listened. Looking back at the creature, she could see something distinctly changed in his eyes.

  “Mully?” she said. “Something’s happened to it.”

  “I see it too,” he said.

  “I think it’s going to be okay.”

  Mulligan looked askance at his Sheharid pupil. “You have a plan?”

  “I’m going to try and talk to him.”

  He blinked. “Whoa, wait, Rom. Not all of us ‘monsters’ actually speak, you know.”

  “He does.”

  “Are you sure? I’m not that familiar with them, I don’t — that is…Oh, I think I get it.”

  She was close enough now that he could have easily attacked her, but he did not. She held up her staff in one hand, but extended to the side. “Easy, you big… you… well, you. Just relax.”

  To her and Mully’s surprise, the creature nodded.

  “Can you speak?” she asked him.

  The creature opened its mouth, but no sound came out – instead, it turned to one side and began to cough violently. The coughing fit eventually seemed to pass, but the animal’s breath was ragged and came in short and obviously painful gasps. The effort seemed to drain the last of his strength, however; his legs trembled and then buckled, and he collapsed to the ground heavily. As she approached him, he shook his head, and then his eyes looked from her to focus specifically on the gem in her forehead. It took one last, trembling breath, and released it in a deep sigh.

  Rom could hear him, almost, in her mind. She felt him as a young cub through adulthood, learning to hunt and to fly, eventually assuming the duties of the leader of his tribe. Then the fires came, engulfing nearly all who he was sworn to protect; the other males, the females and the cubs. The others became corrupted, monstrous, some sort of rotting creations, mindless and feral. One by one, he hunted these unholy things down that had once been part of his own tribe and slew them. And then the burning in his own heart and mind began to consume him. The last thoughts of this magnificent creature were of profound regret, knowing that in the end, there had been none of his tribe left to, in mercy, end his life.

  The body remained completely still for another heartbeat, and then Rom could feel a sense that the life was at last leaving him. She thought her eyes were playing tricks – a thin fluttering wisp, like the faintest puff of steam, rose up from his form and hung there against the breeze for one final second before vanishing entirely. Rom couldn’t explain what caused her to do so, but with the last movement of the great beast, she fell to her knees and wept.

  She cried until her head hurt, until it felt as if it would split from the ferocity of her sorrow, until she felt a depth of calmness and tranquility rise up from the depths of her melancholia and embrace her like a long-lost sibling. A peace caressed her heart, and her tears were stilled, drying on her cheeks.

  Mulligan walked up behind her, and hopped up onto her shoulders, purring softly. He had noticed that such gestures seemed particularly pleasant to people; he assumed it had something to do with the musical elements inherent to the vibration, but whatever the reason, it seemed effective.

  The farmers kindly kept their distance for several minutes, eventually moving up and offering to move the body away and dispose of it.

  She was going to protest, but then realized that they’d stopped talking and were instead staring at her face in silence and shock. Mulligan leaned back to examine her face, too, and his eyes as well widened.

  “Rom,” he breathed.

  “What is it, Mully?” she said, wiping her nose with the back of her hand.

  “You have a new gem.”

  She flinched. “Another one?” Her hand rose to her forehead – sure enough, there was a second gem – though the first one seemed to have shifted slightly, and now both gems were evenly spaced across her skin. The new gem felt warm to the touch – and no sooner had she touched it as there was a bright flash of blue light that caused all the men to jump back in fear.

  And when the light faded, there stood before her a shimmering, semi-translucent mundaline. It was the same size and shape, but where it had been a dark indigo only moments before, it now fairly shone a deep bright blue of a summer day. It looked about, fixed his eyes on her, and bowed.

  “Mistress Rom”, it said, its voice a sturdy baritone. “I pledge my life to you in service. May I repay in death the wrongs I have committed in life.”

/>   “W-wait,” she stammered. “What - - are you asking me?” She looked at Mully, then back to the creature. “What ARE you asking me?”

  “I believe he’s asking-“

  The creature cut him off. “I am giving my life to you to do with as you will. I will remain with you, if you please, to call forth if you have need.”

  “Oh,” Mulligan said. “That’s what I thought,” he lied.

  The farmers stood as one and appeared to see Rom in a new way. She heard them whisper among themselves – and heard the word “Reaper” and “Harvester” mentioned more than once.

  “How do I tell him it’s okay?” she whispered, feeling intensely self-conscious all of a sudden. She just wanted to figure out the quickest way to make them all stop looking at her.

  “You want him to go away?”

  The creature took another step forward, flexing his great black wings and stirring up a small cloud of dust around them. “Please, Mistress Rom,” it said, his voice softer, “I beg of you to give me a chance to earn back my honor, lost as I was in the actions of my delusional self.”

  “You… promise to behave?” she asked.

  He again lowered his head. “I do so swear.”

  “Very well,” she said. “I accept. Just… you’re really … big. And we don’t have a lot of space for you where we live.”

  He seemed to smile; she couldn’t be certain. “Thus I shall return, through your gem.”

  “You live …in there?”

  He nodded. “My soul remains in that way connected to life by your grace.”

  “Wow.” She blinked. “That’s really …” She couldn’t think of the right word, so she let silence capture it.

  He bowed again. “When you have need, call forth and Yu will appear.”

  Her forehead wrinkled, confused. “I will appear?”

  “No. I will appear.”

  “But you said I will appear,” she repeated, clearly confused.

  He laughed; a low, gentle sound. “I called myself by the name given to me by the keeper of my spirit: Yu.”

  “Oh!” she giggled. “You’re Yu!”

  “I am Yu.”

  She laughed again. “Okay, Yu. You go on back, and I’ll see Yu later. You. Yu.” She giggled again, and he laughed softly as well, bowing again and vanishing in another burst of purple light.

  Mully shook his head, pondering his role as guardian animal to this obviously deranged little girl.

  “Oh yes, that joke’s – never – going to get old.”

  Rom remained in the fields for several hours; fearful that the creature’s decaying body would draw the wrath of additional predators, they collected a small pile of wild underbrush and dragged the body atop it, and set it ablaze. Although the men would not let her assist, she stood by the burning pyre until long after it had turned to ash, left relatively alone in her thoughts.

  As she distantly watched the men leave, she observed the change in how they looked at her. Not two days ago, she, the impoverished and parentless child in tatters, would have been all but ignored by them – a sad reminder of the harsh realities of their world. She had been very much like the Wall which kept them all apart from the wondrous life of the True Citizens of the city beyond: always present, but generally ignored. When she had been younger, she had asked one of the Matrons why they didn’t talk about the Wall, why they never tried to climb it, search for a door – why they hadn’t heard from anyone inside the Wall in so many years and yet never thought to find out why?

  The Matron told her, “kicking the Wall will not bring it down.” It hadn’t made sense to her, but it was all the Matron would say in response; and, after asking too many times, Rom was sent to the bathroom to help clean.

  “Mully, is this how it’s always going to be?” she asked. “I’m just going to fight things and have to kill them?”

  “No,” he whispered. “Something was wrong with him. He didn’t die from the fight, I think he was already dying when we got here.”

  She nodded softly. “I…as he was dying, I saw it, saw who he was, and all the things that happened to him and his pack. Something made them all sick, like him.”

  “It wasn’t natural, whatever it was,” Mully said. “There was an artificial corruption to his breath – some foul smell about it.”

  “Yes, I thought so, too!” Rom scratched Mully’s head. “Is that some other thing I can do, as a Sheharid?”

  “It’s part of who you are,” he said. “You are a guardian over life and death - - so I think you can feel when death is approaching something – or has already come.”

  She looked in the opposite direction from the city, out into the wild. “There’s something out there, Mully. Something that’s been making the animals crazy. Ian said it himself, there’s been more of them coming into the city than ever before.”

  “You think something’s happening to them?”

  Rom was quiet for a long moment, listening to the urging of her spirit.

  “No, not something,” she said. “Someone.”

  Chapter 21: Answers and Questions

  Kari stood at the door of the shop, waving merrily to the professors as they left. She closed the door and practically skipped back to the counter and Briseida.

  “They were so nice! And smart!” her eyes were wide as she spoke. “They said I can start my instruction next week, even though it’s in the middle of a term, and they’re going to assign me my own private tutor so I can catch up with the other apprentices, and they’re even going to let me work in my very own workshop in the labs if I want and OH wow I really really want to and…” she paused long enough to look around the room. “Where’s Rom?”

  She spun about twice before Briseida was able to tell her. “She and Mulligan had to go, there was something… she had to do. She went to the fields,” she said.

  Kari frowned. “I wanted to tell her about my meeting,” she pouted.

  “I’m sure she’ll be back soon, dear. Why don’t you help me with the shop until she gets back?”

  The young girl nodded, but did so absently. Her moment of celebration, as wonderful as it was, simply wasn’t as good without her friend here to share it.

  As if in answer to her wish, Rom returned a moment later, walking slowly with Mulligan on her shoulder. She entered the shop, saw Kari and made her way over to her friend. Without saying a word, she gave Kari a long hug.

  “Are you okay, Rom?”

  Rom nodded softly and stepped away. “Everything’s changing so quickly,” she said quietly. “Just look at what’s happened just in the last couple days. I’m just worried what’ll happen next.”

  Kari’s dark eyes rose to Rom’s forehead. “Oh!”

  Affecting a self-conscious smile, Rom nodded. “Two.” The two girls laughed at the memory.

  “And I have another friend, kind of like Mully, but he’s up here,” she said, pointing again to her forehead. “He’s a mundaline.”

  “What’s a mundaline?”

  Rom shrugged. “Dunno. But he’s one. I’d show you, but he’s kind of, um, large. How was your day?”

  Kari bit her lip. “Ummm…” she started.

  “Oh wait! Your interview! How was it? Did they see how brilliant you are?” Rom instantly felt guilty for her selfish worries, and tried to make up for it by focusing on Kari’s circumstances.

  “It was really great,” Kari said, her own enthusiasm picking back up. “They said I’m going to be one of the youngest apprentices in the whole college!”

  Rom’s smile was sincere, beaming for the opportunities for her friend. She’d always thought Kari was smart, but it was great to see Kari getting the kind of recognition Rom believed her friend deserved.

  Other concerns abandoned in their happy conversation, the two girls left the shop, fluttering fragments of their words filling the empty spaces of the old building.

  Briefly pausing while mixing an ointment that guarded against rust-spawned infections, Briseida smiled at the relative re
silience of the young spirit – she’d seen both girls, momentarily saddened, revive instantly at the reappearance of the other. And if what Goya suggested that the old tomes predicted for these two girls was even remotely accurate, they would need that collaborative support more than they could possibly imagine. She sighed softly, choosing instead to busy herself with the sort of mundane tasks that she did have some power over, rather than dwelling upon potential eventualities which she did not.

  Upstairs, Cousins sat in a small study on the east side of the building, staring out across Oldtown through his Looking Glasses. He’d uncovered over a dozen separate filter combinations to the goggles, and was scanning through them, rolling the tiny adjustment dials across their full breadth, methodically exploring the way they would help him see the world.

  Many of the settings were fairly straightforward, but of them all, one had caught his fancy most curiously. Where the other dials, when adjusted to their extreme, simply cycled back to the initial settings, one particular gear stopped after spinning it to a certain point. At first, when he spun the dial, he thought it was shimmering like starlight; but as he dialed the gear more slowly he realized he was seeing around him in days and nights. A broader adjustment showed him snow upon the ground, then back to spring and summer. His heart pounded in his chest; these were impressive glasses indeed, he realized.

  But when the dial reached its furthest end, his breath caught in his throat. For when he looked out upon the world at its most expanded view, the mighty Wall, the impenetrable symbol of their town’s exile, was gone.

  Where it had once stood was at that point nothing more than rubble; and beyond it… nothing.

  Cousins continued to look for several moments, but at last dialed the Looking Glasses back to their original settings, and removed them from his eyes, sliding them up onto his forehead. For more than an hour, he sat, staring out at the Wall, as consideration of the countless probabilities danced through his imagination.