Cogs in Time 2 (The Steamworks Series)

by SJ Davis

  Legree's face twisted in rage as he pulled a knife from his belt and pressed it against Tom's throat. "I'll only ask you one more time, slave. Where are Cassy and the girl?"

  "I'm no slave, sir," Tom gasped proudly. "I'm a free man."

  Legree spat on the floor. "Then die free." He stabbed Tom in the stomach several times before he kicked him and let him hang.

  Tom's head hung down and didn't move. The two laborers with Legree stared at what their owner had just done.

  Legree snapped at them, "Leave him there until he rots," then he stormed away and left them behind.

  They looked at each other warily. "This is wrong," the first man whispered.

  "I know, but what do we do?" the other man said.

  "Let's cut him down. To hell with what the citizen says."

  ***

  The next day Legree almost drank himself unconscious. He had lost three laborers in one day, and none of his other ones showed up to work the scrap yards. Even his two managers had made themselves scarce. He looked up and saw a steam carriage coming toward the house. He ignored it and belched loudly before he scratched his head.

  A young man with blonde hair stepped out and looked around. He seemed anxious, like he was searching for something. He noticed Legree sitting on the porch and walked over to him.

  "You there! Is your name Simon Legree?" he asked.

  Legree yawned. "What of it?"

  "I'm here looking for one of your laborers. A man named Tom. He used to belong to my father, and I'm here to buy him back."

  Legree glanced up into the young man bright blues eyes and snorted. "Don't know who you mean."

  "I do," the old laborer said. He walked up to the young man. "I know who you mean."

  "Shut the hell up!" Legree roared, but then grimaced and clutched his head. "Shut up, all of you."

  "That man," the old man pointed, "beat him senseless and left him to die. We took him in and did our best to care for him."

  The young man grimaced. "Oh Tom... Lead on, my name is Sebastian, I am his friend. Please take me to him."

  "Yes, sir."

  The old man led Sebastian to a group of fallen huts and pointed to one off to the side. Sebastian entered the hut and had to cover his mouth and nose from the smell. It was horrible. But the stench was nothing compared to the sight on the ground.

  "Oh Tom!" Sebastian cried out and dropped to the fallen figure.

  There was very little of Tom left and hardly anything recognizable. His legs and arms were weakened and frail and his stomach was distended from the stab wounds that had punctured his organs and filled his body with decaying blood.

  The figure moved ever so slightly and groaned.

  "Tom!" Sebastian said and very gently shook his dear friend.

  "Master Sebastian?" a voice touched by death and pain rose to his ears.

  "Oh, Uncle Tom, my dear friend! What have they done to you?"

  "I... I didn't break, Master Sebastian. He tried... and he hurt me so, but I didn't break. I swear I didn't."

  Tears streamed down Sebastian's face. "I believe you, Uncle Tom."

  Tom smiled ever so slightly. "Miss Eva is waiting to take me home. Please tell my wife I'll love her forever." Then Tom's eyes went lifeless and closed.

  Sebastian clutched Tom's coarse shirt in his hands as he cried. "I'm so sorry, Tom. I tried to come sooner, I really did."

  ***

  Sebastian carried Tom's body to his steam wagon with the help of the old man and another laborer. They laid him down gently and covered him. Sebastian turned to face Legree, who looked at him with disinterest.

  "What are you staring at, boy?" Legree spat.

  "I should have you brought up on murder charges," Sebastian growled. "You are a worthless trader of human lives."

  Legree laughed. "Murder charges? Of who? That stupid laborer who got himself killed? Ha! Prove it, boy."

  Sebastian's eyes narrowed. Deep inside he knew Tom wouldn't want him to exact revenge on the monster in front of him.

  "I am a free man. Just like Tom." Sebastian said.

  "Oh! So you're a free man? Then get lost. You're trespassing." Legree grinned at him. He watched the anger in Sebastian's eyes. "What are you going to do, kill me, boy? I can tell you don't have it in you!"

  Sebastian took a long breath and glanced behind Legree before he looked back at the monster in front of him. "You're right, I won't kill you. But I'm not a good man like Tom either. I don't have to protect you." Without another word, he turned and walked to the steam wagon, climbed in and drove off.

  Legree roared with laughter. "Protect me? From what? Stupid boy." He shook his head until he looked over at the laborers who had gathered into a group. He glared at them. "What are you all standing around for? Get to work, curse you!"

  He felt uneasy as the group began moving toward him, their faces mixed with anger and pain. "Here now! Get back!"

  The crowd reached for him, years of agony pent up to the boiling point. Tom's death had been the final straw for many. Legree had never shown them any mercy and now they would repay him in kind.

  ***

  Sebastian returned home with Tom's body. He buried him on a hill that overlooked the house and Uncle Tom's cabin. He sent word to George, and together, the two men used their fortunes to make change happen, not only within that city, but many throughout the land. Chloe, Tom's wife, joined Sebastian in speaking out about the lives of laborers and her husband Tom. It was the first time a laborer and a woman had ever spoken in public. A plaque was placed on Uncle Tom's cabin in memorial of their lives and those that they had touched.

  It was a story that would be passed down from one generation to the next and would never be forgotten, until all men were truly free.

  Candy Apple Red

  Deborah Dalton

  Professor Milton Apple kissed the top of his daughter’s fair hair and patted her shoulder before spinning her around. He pointed to the massive oak door leading out of his study and into the corridor. The electric lights dimmed just as her smile did. The grandfather clock’s ticking even slowed a little. It had no pendulum, it was powered by the city like everything else, and if the city’s electrical grid was shorting out…

  He pushed hard on her back with the heel of his hand. “Go, child.”

  Candy stuck out her lower lip and grabbed her father’s suit jacket. Some of her ringlets fell across her dark eyes. “But they’re saying that Lady Seleste is in the city.”

  “Rubbish and nonsense.”

  The entire building beneath them shuddered. Apple glanced through the window to see the horizon wobble and rise as the city rose up on its running stilts. Steam hissed out of the vents from the rooftops. He squinted to see the fighters still pouring over the walls. The citywide intercom blared its alarm, although the closed window muted its shrieking.

  Candy looked up at her father, wide-eyed, and Apple shook his head. “Just a drill, sweetheart.”

  He turned away, eyeballing the height to the top of Candy’s head. She still looked too short to see over the sill.

  The professor pushed her toward the door with a firm hand. “I hear that Mag is making pies. I’m sure you could steal some excess crust.”

  Whirling around, she bit him on the wrist.

  He grimaced. “Candy!”

  The girl dropped her grip and stared down at the floor. Sniffling, she murmured, “I’m sorry.”

  He grabbed her shoulders, picked her up and set her down on the other side of the threshold. “I’m sorry, too.”

  He closed the door and turned around. “I know you’re here, sir, although I don’t know how.”

  Red moved silently, unfolding from the darkness in the corners. His bulk rose up, standing well over the professor. A horsetail hung from the back of his bronze helmet, and Apple heard the faint clicking of the gears as the massive metallic body glided over the polished wooden floor.

  Nothing human left, except the heart and brain, the rumor echoed in Professo
r Apple’s mind.

  One of the automaton’s eyes swiveled to check through the window, while the other two remained pinpointed on the professor. “It looks like I’ve arrived just in time.” The metallic lips did not move.

  Apple leaned over his desk, his body stiff. His old-fashioned quill pen wobbled over the document in haste.

  “What are you doing, pray tell?”

  The professor swallowed. “I’m updating my will. Even though my only child will die before me.” He blanched as the entire city swayed, jerking into a crab-like run to escape its predators.

  Red made some choking sounds, and it took Apple a few moments for his brain to digest that the sound of a band saw on metal was the automaton laughing.

  “Oh come now. She may outlive you yet. Is that not why I am here?”

  Apple glared.

  “Too many made it over the walls.” Red’s eye stretched out further on its telescope just as the first cracks of the rifles reached their ears. The eyeball zoomed out. “And the Chaos Star on their uniforms.”

  “So it is Seleste.” Apple looked, but all he could see were dark figures scrambling and the muzzle flashes between the invaders and defenders. Occasionally, the blinding zip of the ray guns flashed. Apple signed and dated his will. “It seems the Chaos Star is in demand.”

  Red barked another clanging laugh. “As always. Who doesn’t want a true perpetual motion device? Such is the reason why I am willing to deal with you.” The automaton started playing with the items on Apple’s bookshelf, spinning around slim volumes with huge, bulky figures. He slid a lit candle further along the wall as he tapped the base with a shovel of a foot. He shoved aside the rolling ladder.

  Apple shivered under the unblinking stare of two of Red’s eyes. The building tilted with the motion of the city, but he noticed the automaton stayed upright. One leg just extended a little lower and then retracted, gyroscopically balanced. The monster was still playing with his bookshelf. He wouldn’t find what he was looking for; Apple had always been prepared for this eventuality.

  But still, he never imagined his life would turn out like this. That he would be making this arrangement. That Candy…

  He straightened his shoulders and cleared his throat. “A lifetime of your service, sir, in exchange for everything I know about the Chaos Star.” He pushed the other paper on the desk forward.

  After a moment, Red replied through his motionless lips, “I only need the location. Possibly information about its protections.”

  “You will have everything I know. My family has been its guardian since its installation in the city. And yes, I am willing to risk it. Our agreement is that you will be my servant until my death.”

  “And that saves your face to the public until you die, since I know you won’t allow me the Chaos Star.”

  “But you’ll have everything I know. You’ll have time to prepare.” He lifted an index finger. “And you shall cause no harm to your owner.”

  Red stared for a long moment. “Very well.”

  “Agreed.” Apple watched Red sign, and eventually, he remembered to breathe. He had a one man army now. He cleared his throat. “My first order is that you build a mechanical heart for Candy.”

  “But I do not have a mechanical heart. I have never constructed one.”

  “Don’t play with me, Red. You’d have to shut down, the same with your brain. But Candy doesn’t have enemies. She can shut down for a few moments and awake with a new, pure heart.”

  “Information. Now.”

  Apple hesitated and raised an eyebrow. “We have time, I assure you.”

  “I do not take chances, especially with Lady Seleste nearby. The location, if you please.”

  Apple chuckled and shook his head. “I don’t know that.”

  Red didn’t move, but maintained his stare.

  “We have always compartmentalized that information. I maintain the energy generated to the machines, but only my late wife knew the Star’s location. I fear that it’s lost forever, now.”

  Red glided back toward the window, where the outside rifle shots were steadily growing louder. “I underestimated you. I see now that you are as much of a deceiver as I am.”

  Apple’s eyebrows briefly indented, but he was too slow. A new shadow encompassed the room, and the professor looked to the electric lights glowing brightly. He whipped around to see the bulk of his bookcase teetering over him, starting to fall.

  The burning candle slipped free of the wood, plunging through the cartilage of his nose and into his eye socket. Apple collapsed underneath the shelf and tomes. Melted tallow sizzled on his cheek, but there was nothing left in the body to flinch.

  Red knelt down next to the fallen bookshelf. “I set up this accident before I agreed not to harm my owner.”

  Apple’s body flopped a few times, but grew weaker with each spasm. His lips parted, “…Candy owns you now…” With one final jerk, he slackened for the last time.

  Red rose to his towering height. Slowly, he swiveled an eyeball to the desk and zoomed in on the updated will.

  A hand retracted inside the metal casing of his arm and the pilot light emerged. The gas cocktail started to stream out of a vent on his opposite wrist. Before he could light the contract ablaze, the door across the room opened, and Candy stared at him, toes peeking across the study’s threshold. Two of the city’s watchmen flanked her.

  Red didn’t hesitate, just pivoted, and sent the fires screaming across the room at the intruders.

  Ducking, Candy somersaulted forward. The guards turned to flee the room, but the flames scoured their clothing. The fat underneath their skin caught alight, creating candles out of their bodies. In a few short seconds, the corpses fell forward onto the lacquered floor.

  Red lurched forward, trying to lower an arm. Even though the mechanism responded sluggishly, he was glad he had brought them. The metal gears clicked as he pushed through the window, and watched the shattering glass twinkling in the streetlights as it fell onto the street below.

  He could feel himself shutting down, and wondered if he would make it. He was almost out of power. He shouldn’t have used so much on the flamethrower. To think he’d come so close to the Star, true eternal power, and had failed.

  He reached the bag he’d hung outside the window, every gear whirring and straining inside. With his prehensile tentacles, he ejected the power cartridge in his arm and slid a new one into place.

  Despite the mechanical filters, he still needed to breathe in order to circulate the blood between his heart and brain, and the new surge of power allowed him to do so easier. Once that was taken care of, he went to work replacing three other power cartridges to power everything else. Red paused, hearing an odd scraping sound behind him. He clicked the last cartridge into place and swiveled one of his eyes back into the room.

  Candy looked up, fresh blood spilling down her chin as a heart dropped from her teeth. She let go of the little knife in one hand, but the other clutched a rib that she’d pulled up from the smoking corpse.

  Red rotated to face the room, his ankles spinning on his stationary feet. “Why?”

  “Because it makes my heart stronger. For a little while.”

  After a moment, he said, “Twisted logic there, kid.” He remained by the window, calculating his trajectory. Below, he spied enemy soldiers sweeping into their building, and suppressed a dark chuckle. “Hey, kid, you couldn’t possibly know where the Star is stashed, do ya?” He swung his legs over the railing.

  “You know where to look, deep down in the depths of the book. As light as a feather, there bound in red leather.”

  Red froze.

  “Mother wrote it out to me when she died. Then she burned the page.”

  His eye swiveled down to the street. Ray blasts and muzzle flashes erupted from the second story below. Distant, but thunderous, footsteps sounded outside in the hall.

  “Hey, kid, I will take you by a whole orphanage if you show me where that Star is.”

&n
bsp; Candy watched him with a look far more ancient than any child should have—cynical, shrewd and calculating. Meanwhile, the blood dried on her cheeks and chin. The ticking of the pendulum-less clock filled the gathering void between them.

  The door swung inward, creaking on its hinges. A blowing cape hugged the form of Lady Seleste, and small bells chimed on her large-brimmed hat. Her dark eyes glanced downward.

  “So the child knows.” In her hand, an ornate wooden box balanced on the palm of her purple glove. The other hand held a smoking pistol that followed her gaze as she surveyed the room. “Red.”

  She stepped inside and two of her fighters swept to either side of her. Ignoring the automaton, she knelt in front of Candy, brushing the fair hair away from her bloody face. “What…? You must have fallen face first. Poor child. Red is a monster,” she raised her eyes, “and cannot be trusted, no matter what he says.”

  Red snorted. “No more than you, my lady.” He started to raise his arm, bristling with tentacles, knives and at least two built-in guns.

  Putting a protective hand on Candy’s shoulder, Seleste stood to stare him down. “Not with the child in the room. She is the only one who knows where my people’s stolen legacy is.”

  Red snarled, but didn’t move. “At least I’m no fool that worships a machine. That’s all it is, even if no one can explain it.”

  Seleste gritted her teeth, but said nothing. Holstering her gun as her men aimed their ray guns at Red, she opened the box. Inside, a stainless bronze heart rested on cushions of silk. Valves and gears glittered in the light.

  Candy’s fingers brushed the polished metal. It was bigger than she needed at the moment, but she could grow into it.

  “I had brought this to offer your father, but I’m glad for the chance to give it directly to you.” The lady’s eyes never once moved to the late professor.

  “Poor child, especially now that you’ve lost both your parents. Come with me instead.” She smiled angelically, but snapped the box shut. “Now, please, take me to the Star.”