Steampunk Tales, Volume 1

by Ren Cummins

  Its statement was interrupted as one of the others turned to look behind them – an action which was rewarded with the sudden explosion of its head. This caused another to turn, only to be similarly dispatched. Cousins flipped up the two cards and smiled to see that one of them was actually useful. He flicked these cards towards his remaining opponents. The leader swatted one away, but the other struck its target squarely in the chest. His robes instantly constricted to half their original size, compressing their wearer rapidly beyond its ability to bend. In a moment, it was crushed into a grotesque pile of sand and bits of bone.

  “You are a fortunate one,” the remaining creature said to him. “But I will return to finish this.”

  Cousins was about to respond with one of his favorite insults, but the creature punched one fist into his other palm with a loud crack. In a flash, he disappeared.

  “You might have waited a moment longer,” Cousins said to the outer room as the energy wall dissolved, mild annoyance evident in his voice.

  “Why do you say that?” came the response. Favo stepped into the room, careful not to get any of the ash from his targets onto his favorite traveling boots.

  “I was about to learn who sent them here.” He looked past Favo to regard the open cabinet, and peer into the secret alcove disguised therein. With a non-committal shrug of his shoulders, he pushed the section of wall back into place until the latch in the wall clicked shut. “Nice panel,” he appraised.

  “Thank you,” Favo smiled. “I do hope I haven’t come at too bad a time. I’d hate to think I came all this way to save your life, only to have my heroic sense of timing underappreciated.”

  Cousins turned back long enough to chuckle. “No, it was appreciated, I just wasn’t expecting you. Plus, I suppose it was very likely he might have simply killed me before giving me the information I sought. Speaking of which,” he continued, “I’m disappointed that in spite of my efforts, I failed to discover that secreted panel, there. Any other mysteries about this place you neglected to tell me?” He returned to the cabinet, closed it and secured his two replacement pistols in the holsters after loading them and ensuring his hasty repairs would hold up.

  Favo shrugged. “I observe the right to retain one or two secrets in my own home, I should think.”

  His younger successor was forced to admit the probability. He’d spent a lot of time scouring the place, and had until a moment ago been confident he had discovered all of Favo’s caches and hidden doorways. “Fair enough. Wish you’d been here a bit earlier, I could have used the extra guns.”

  “You seem to have managed well enough without me.” Favo’s expression turned more serious. “In truth, I came in through the front door; things do not look well downstairs. Those soldiers are efficient, I’ve only seen them at work a few times before. Do you know much about them?”

  Shaking his head, Cousins coughed to clear up some of the dust that had been inadvertently breathed in. He tried not to think of what it was he might have breathed. “They didn’t seem to be alive, exactly – most standard arts that affect living things just passed by them like a breath of wind. But they seemed to be affected by light and heat; or exposure to the air, perhaps.”

  “They’re part of the Queen’s elite forces – the Whitehold – but…” Favo’s eyebrows came together slightly. “There’s more to them than there once was. They’re quite the opposite of human, now.”

  Cousins pondered this, chewing on his lower lip. “We need to check the rest of the building, I don’t want these things here in my house.”

  Favo nodded, realizing the inaccuracy of trying to correct Cousins. Though, he thought, maybe the young man was right. Perhaps this was his house.

  But Cousins stopped in the doorway. “Wait,” he said, turning to face Favo. “This is too convenient, all these things attacking and you showing up. This is no coincidence, am I right?”

  Shaking his head, Favo answered him. “I didn’t know the Whitehold would already be here. I only knew they were mobilizing and saw them heading towards the tunnels to breach the town. I took my own secret route through the Wall and got here as quickly as I could. I supposed of all their likely targets, I would either find them or find you – so, either an enemy or an ally would await me. Or, clearly, the possibility of both.”

  “So you know why they came here?”

  “I didn’t know they’d come here, I came here looking for you.” Favo placed a hand on Cousins’ shoulder. “They’re after your friend, Rom. We have to find her before they do, assuming they haven’t already.”

  Cousins nodded. “I know where she is.”

  Chapter 14: Answers in New Directions

  Rom stirred, blinking against the dizzying swirls of light and sound and the relative cold of the stone beneath her. Kari and Yu were looking down on her, while Mulligan had his nose pressed against her forehead. He blinked and sat back.

  “Good,” he said, relief apparent in his voice. “You were only out for a few minutes.”

  She tried to sit up but decided against it as the room took a sharp turn to the right. “What- what happened?”

  Yu shifted his great head towards Kari. “She used her new machine and scattered our enemies.”

  Kari blushed. “Well, it’s not really meant to do that, but it did kind of work.”

  Turning her head slowly didn’t make her feel quite so sick, and Rom finally got a good look at the great machine. It was sitting across the room from where it had originally been when she’d come in, and the cranes which held it up were bent and shifted as if a great force had pulled them along with Kari’s machine. One of the spindles on the back of the carriage was spinning slowly.

  “Yeah, I think I really got a lot more power out of that engine than I’d planned. But I can fix that.”

  Yu stepped closer to Rom. “I hope I did not hurt you, Romany. When the machine came on, a powerful wind blew and I feared it might toss you about, so I lay across you to keep you from being lost.”

  “Oh, that explains the fur in my mouth,” Rom chuckled, wincing against the action’s momentary twinge in her head. She was already feeling much better, though, and slowly sat upright. Against the wall opposite Kari’s machine, several of the white robes hung at various places across tables or benches, as if abandoned there. One hung limply from a chain that descended from the rafters.

  “How hard did that wind hit them?” she asked.

  Kari, who was already putting her gloves back on with the “I’m going to work now” expression that Rom remembered far too well, paused and bit her lip. “Um, pretty hard. I didn’t think it would pulverize them, I just wanted to get them out of my lab.”

  Mulligan, content now that Rom was past the worst of it, nudged her arm to encourage her to scratch his head. “I’ve never seen a machine create so much force,” he said. “There was much more than steam in that device.”

  “I’m going to have to reinforce this frame a bit, and maybe open up the acceleration nozzle. Too much power and it could tear free of the ballonets.” Kari was already making adjustments to the machine, lost in her own designs.

  “She can’t hear you now,” Rom said, continuing to give Mulligan some gentle scratches behind the horns. “So, do you think they’ll be back?”

  “Possibly. They were pretty determined.” He reluctantly walked from her to examine one of the robes, lifting it and letting the ash and dust fall away. “Rom,” he said, holding up a section of the cloth towards her.

  She looked at the patch and frowned. “Yes, I saw that.” She pulled the patch she’d found on the sandman she’d fought days before on the streets of Aesirium. The two patches were exactly the same.

  Yu limped over to her. Terenaa walked beside him, a look of concern on her narrow face. “He was struck badly by several of the men,” she told Rom. “I have suggested he return and heal, but he would not leave until he was certain you would be well.”

  Rom cupped Yu’s cheek in the palm of her hand, noticing how small her
hands appeared beside his face. She nodded slowly. “I am all right now, Yu,” she whispered. “Go rest and get better.”

  Yu’s eyes scanned the room. He had been her great protector these past years, but he was also her friend. At last, his eyes returned to hers, and he nodded to her. “I will be ready when you have need of me,” he said.

  She touched the gems on her forehead with her other hand, feeling him dissolve and vanish into energy against her skin. In her mind, distantly, she could feel him there, pacing, reluctant to go in spite of his wounds.

  Rom turned to Terenaa, who was sniffing around with her forked tongue. “What is it?”

  “Looking for that new one – Crickets or whatever his name is.”

  “Rickets, if you please,” came the reply from not too far off. The air seemed to shiver in a faintly Rickets-shaped aura, and he slowly faded back into view.

  “Coward,” Terenaa hissed.

  Rickets rolled his yellow eyes. “Oh, please. I’m not made for fighting. I’m happy to a little reconnoitering – go and look, stay out of sight, something like that. More brains than brawn, sorry to say. Let me know if I need to speak slower for you.”

  Mulligan grumbled deep in his chest. “He’s going to need a lot of work, Rom.”

  She hushed them all, bowing slightly to Terenaa and Rickets. “Thank you both; I’ll call for you when I need you again.” She touched the gems again, sending them back to the world of spirits just as Rickets prepared to make another sarcastic comment. Also, seeing her sword laying a few meters away, she tapped the black stone on her bracelet, sending the weapon back to wherever it came from.

  As she walked over to Kari, a shadow passed across the floor. Looking up, she saw another of the sandmen, but this one had a colored mask and a tattered cloak. When she saw him, he punched his right fist into the palm of his other hand and vanished.

  “That can’t be good,” Rom frowned.

  “Who do you think he was?” Mulligan asked.

  “I don’t know. Maybe their leader or something, I guess.”

  Kari was still leaning beneath the carriage of her machine and hadn’t noticed.

  Mulligan’s ears flinched. “Someone’s coming.” He looked back towards the main door. “Two people, running.”

  Rom’s hand moved to the bracelet again as the door burst open, revealing Cousins and Favo, pistols drawn. They both moved quickly into the room, eyes searching from ceiling to floor.

  “Rom, is your friend here?” Favo’s question was urgent; Rom had never heard him like this. She gestured over towards the machine.

  Cousins was staring at the machine as well – Rom didn’t think he’d even noticed her. He walked halfway across the room towards it when he finally paused and seemed to recognize Rom. Without hesitating, he reached out to embrace her – before awkwardly releasing her a moment later, blushing faintly. “It’s, um, good to see you again, eh, Rom,” he stammered.

  Rom could feel a bit of warmth rising into her own ears.

  Placing one hand on each of their shoulders, Favo rescued the two youths from their moment of embarrassment. He stepped between them, turning them both around to face the large machine. “Well, Miss Hikari, it looks like you’ve been busy here. Planning on breaking the law, are you?”

  Kari sat up and narrowly avoided slamming her forehead on the underside of the carriage. “Wh-Favo?”

  He bowed, his hands on Cousins and Rom forcing them to do the same. “In the flesh, my young smith. I am gladdened to see you well.”

  She placed the tool she’d been using back into a loop on her belt and removed the gauntlets from her hands, tucking them back into the pouch she kept them in. Her eyes went from Favo to Rom to Cousins, as though seeing them all for the first time. In an instant, her arms were around them all.

  Favo and the three young friends stood there a long moment, when a sound from across the room parted them. Cousins and Favo drew pistols, Rom summoned her staff, and Kari quickly slipped on her gauntlets, deftly adjusting the dials to increase their strength.

  A sandman stood from behind an overturned table, dizzy and unsteady. He looked around and realized he was alone among his comrades, standing before four prepared combatants.

  Rom tensed, preparing to jump, but Favo placed a hand on her shoulder. “May I?” he asked, raising his spellshot towards the sandman.

  “Bind!” he spoke with a pull of the trigger. Pale grey ropes shot from the end of the pistol, catching the sandman as it tried to leap out of the way, coiling quickly around it until it was bound, head to toe in a thick and rapidly-congealing web.

  As it fell, unable to move, Favo slipped the pistol back into its holster with a slight flourish. “We need to know more about these things. Perhaps those magical friends of yours might be willing to assist?”

  Rom looked from the trussed-up sandman to Favo, Cousins and Kari. She nodded. “Okay,” she agreed. “Let’s take it to Goya.”

  Chapter 15: Conversations with a Sandman

  The front door to the apothecary was closed, and the shutters were drawn, but the door opened just as they arrived. Briseida was there, her red braids tied up in an elaborate coil atop her head before hanging down past her shoulders. Her dress was a simple blue, designed more for comfort than elegance, but her manner and presence always made whatever she wore seem more graceful just for having her wear them.

  Although she smiled warmly as she looked at the four of them, she did not seem surprised. “Goya said you would all be coming today, but I did not expect you to be arriving together,” she said. “Nor did she mention you’d be carrying a prisoner.” Her voice seemed to darken a bit when she looked at Favo, with the roughly man-shaped cloth-covered object slung over his shoulder.

  His eyes looked downwards, having difficulty meeting her gaze. “I do beg your pardon, my lady; our previous meetings were…less than honorable, and I would gladly extend the apologies you are due…” he shifted the weight of the bulk he carried. “But this thing is rather cumbersome.”

  Her lips tightened into a firm line, but Briseida stepped aside, holding the door open for them to enter. As they all passed, she leaned closely enough to whisper “behave” into Favo’s ear as he passed. He nodded sheepishly.

  “Goya is waiting for you to the left, in the parlor,” she said to them. She looked briefly outside, assuring no curious eyes were following her friends to the apothecary. When she closed and locked the door, she traced a worn pair of sigils carved into the doorjamb, whispering a simple word of power that activated them.

  Goya looked much older than Rom had remembered her; and she had looked old even then. Rom ran over to the chair where the old shaman sat, and hugged her. “I’m sorry I had to go, Goya,” she began.

  The old woman patted her head. “No, no, you did what you felt you had to do, my child. There is no fault to be found in that.” She made Rom stand so she could look at her. “But did you find what you sought?”

  Rom nodded. “I… I think so.” She pointed at Favo and the bundle he carried over his shoulder. “And these are part of it, I think.”

  Goya cleared her throat, waiting for Briseida to close the parlor door. “Well, then, let’s have a look at it,” she said, pointing to the floor in front of her.

  Favo laid it in the center of the room, while Briseida stood nearby. When he pulled the cloth from it, it began writhing, though, bound, it was unable to free itself or move significantly. Behind the clean white mask, it hissed.

  “Bring me my runes, apprentice,” Goya said. Briseida strode to one of the shelves on the wall behind Goya, and plucked a small bag from between a row of books and ornate boxes. Made of tanned animal skins, it looked soft but well-worn. Goya tugged gently at the drawstrings, slipping the fingers from one hand into the opening while she kept her gaze fixed on the sandman.

  Rom looked at Goya, then at Briseida. Goya’s expression was unreadable; she was clearly reaching out mystically to inquire for illumination. But Briseida looked angry – her
eyes were fixed upon the sandman, but not so much at his face. Rom followed her eyes to the sandman’s shoulder patch. But before Rom could wonder as to the nature of the young woman’s apparent enmity against it, Goya drew a thin disk from out of the bag.

  She ran her thumb across the rune which had been burned into it, and placed it into the palm of her hand before drawing another. The old woman seemed to make note of these both and then replaced them in the bag, and drew the cord shut once again.

  “Remove the mask,” she nodded to Favo.

  He reached down and did as he was told. Kari gasped, taking a step back and partially behind Cousins. Rom grimaced, shaking her head.

  The sandman’s face was purplish-black, its eyes pure black glistening orbs in sunken sockets. The skin of its face was taut and leathern, but looked mottled and raw, even cracked in places, mostly around the mouth. But inside his mouth, long pointed teeth gleamed sharply from the darkness. He hissed again, more violently now.

  Goya’s expression seemed stern but sad. She rose her head to look directly at Rom. “The runes tell me you saw this before today, and that they have one mind and another mind.”

  Rom nodded. “I rescued a woman who was being attacked by one, in the city. Favo was there, and helped me. I cut it through with my scythe, but it didn’t pull its soul out like it does to other monsters like it. But then it started talking to me. He…” she swallowed before continuing. “He said he knew me – said that they knew me, that I was death.”

  Stepping closer, Rom looked down into its unfathomable eyes, and it suddenly stopped writhing and hissing. “He said they used to be one, but now they’re ‘legion’.” She frowned. “I don’t care what they are, I’ll fight them all.”

  The creature coughed, bile gurgling in its throat before it struggled and resumed hissing, its eyes never once leaving Rom’s face.

  “Rom,” Goya said, “you say it started speaking after you used your scythe?”