Guns & Flame: The Sara Featherwood Adventures ~ Volume Three

by Guy Antibes

  “I’ve got another day of science labs. I have no idea of what to expect. I’d be on your guard, Lily. Ferdik was trying to get both of us to leave. He tried to attend the science session, but as soon as he saw me, he took off like a scared rabbit. Nevertheless, I’d be wary of him and his friends.”

  “I may not carry as sharp a knife as you do, but my tongue is much, much sharper and I think I’ll cut him to ribbons in a different way.”

  ‘Did you see Hans?” Sara asked.

  “No. In fact, he still hasn’t made it to any of the sessions.”

  “Hmpf,” Sara made the sound and wondered if he had disappeared in Okalla as had Meldey. That would make sense if he worked for the Duke, but why would he disappear if Millis had put him in with the boys from the University. She couldn’t figure that out.

  ~

  Sara made sure she passed through the garden where she met Meldey on her way to the labs. This early in the morning, she walked through an empty square, evidently no one desired to brave the cold.

  She had arrived earlier than the men and entered the lab. Doctor Grappel fidgeted with glass components to an experiment set-up.

  “Anything I can help you with?” Sara said. “I’m comfortable enough inside a lab.”

  “I’m going to distill this liquid and combine it with these two powders.”

  “Which is the catalyst?” Sara said.

  “You are a smart one. Tell me, are all of the University students as dull as these?”

  “Ah. I can’t tell you that, Doctor Grappel. I’m from the Women’s College and formerly from The Women’s School in Obridge, Shattuk Downs. I studied under some very competent professors and perhaps these men haven’t been exposed to much in the way of Science yet, since I’m not privy to the University Curriculum.”

  “Then why did they send them?”

  Sara could only shrug and truthfully tell him, “I don’t know. I didn’t select them.” She began to set up a heating station and proceeded to construct the entire distilling apparatus. “I can’t go any further until you tell me what the reaction is going to be. I don’t know what the liquid is.”

  Grappel had started from the other end. “I’ll show you in the demonstration. You did a very good job setting this up.”

  “I learned in an assayer’s laboratory at a mine. They had to distill water in order to do precise testing.”

  “An assayer’s daughter?” Grappel said.

  Sara shook her head. “No, but I did it enough times.” She let it stay at that as the Parthian students arrived and sat in a clump like the previous day. “I better take my seat.” She smiled at Grappel.

  “Now we perform for these sub-human Parthians. I don’t mean you, Countess Featherstone.”

  She colored and gave him a little nod. “Thank you.” Sara didn’t bother to correct his mis-stating her last name. She’d rather be known as a Featherstone rather than a Featherwood at this point.

  Doctor Grappel looked up at the students and cleared his throat. He proceeded to discuss the combination of two medical formulations. One powder came from processed willow bark. Crushed seeds from an un-named plant became the foundation of the other. Water would combine the two powders into a solution, dried and then crushed to create a uniform powder.

  “Why not just mix the powders together?” One of the Parthian students said.

  “Do you know Miss Featherstone?” Doctor Grappel said.

  “I would assume that the willow bark is a pain killer. That’s a common enough medicine in Parthy. The powder derived from the seed of the other plant might be used as a sleeping powder, for example. It could be a poison or have severe side effects if taken in quantity, so you mix them into a solution to ensure that they are properly combined. The drying process will reduce the mixed powders back into powder form, and that assumes that the powders fully dissolve into the solution and don’t lose their potency in the process.”

  “I knew you would understand. The water, with a small measure of another liquid, which I won’t reveal, will ensure full dissolution. Let’s make the liquid.”

  The professor turned a valve and let steam from boiling water circulate through the distillation apparatus. The water began to collect in a glass beaker, and then a few drops of another liquid from a brown glass bottle dropped into the water. He poured it in a measured beaker and carefully measured ten measures of the willow bark powder and one half-measure of the sleeping powder. He took a glass rod and stirred it and put the beaker on a metal ring with an alcohol burner.

  “While we are waiting for the water to boil off, how would a healer use this?”

  Time for a low profile. Sara let the Parthian students struggle with to respond and she breathed a sigh of relief when a boy came up with a plausible answer.

  Doctor Grappel asked the students about the state of medicine in Parthy. From his questions, Sara wished that Nona sat at her side. Belonnia certainly had the edge with innovation in medicine and she thought that the concept, that Grappel had just demonstrated, was novel. Powders were prepared in Shattuk Downs, but Sara knew of no dual-purpose preparation. She’d have to talk to Hedge about the Belonnian technique and would have to find an apothecary to find out about the state of Parthian medicines.

  Sara felt comfortable, watching Grappel finish with his preparations as he tried to pull a discussion from the Parthians. Didn’t the students have any idea that the process might be important? She could only shake her head in disbelief. Grappel would leave the session realizing that Belonnia’s technology exceeded Parthy’s.

  She had thought that Parthy had the edge in science. Now she knew differently. Her country needed to catch up, not for competition but for competence.

  By the time the questions had ended, a white residue laid at the bottom of the beaker. Doctor Grappel took a metal instrument and scraped the powder onto a sheet of paper. He invited the students down to take a look. Only a few descended the steps. Sara stood at the back of the line.

  She bent over and looked at the powder. She could see tiny clumps of crystals amidst the powder. ‘What are these crystals?”

  Doctor Grappel’s face reddened. “In the interests of time, we skipped a few steps.”

  “Perhaps you needed something different in the catalyst. Or the one you used was impure and acted as seeds for the crystals of one of the two materials. I remember your alloy discussion yesterday, I would think that the same concepts would apply here.”

  The professor pulled out a magnifying glass and looked at the powder. “You’re right. Your friends didn’t notice this.”

  “I don’t think they have had quite as much laboratory experience as I have. I was trained to look for unexplained results.”

  “Very good. I wish you were one of my students.” Grappel smiled, but to Sara’s eyes, he was thinking of something else while he talked.

  “Could you remain after class today? I would like to continue our discussion on catalysts. “ His posture and tone of voice didn’t speak of an open exchange. Perhaps it might be the difference in the language, Sara thought.

  She doubted that Doctor Grappel had a positive view of Parthy like Linssa Pockmakle and wouldn’t feel comfortable being alone with him. Sara looked around and found the man from the day before sitting up above the Parthian students.

  “I’m sorry. I’ve arranged a late shopping day, this afternoon.” Sara hated lying, but she didn’t see the alternative. She didn’t want to be alone with any Belonnians.

  Grappel looked up at the man above and nodded.

  “That’s it for today. Countess Featherstone will be staying behind. I believe there are no events tonight. Enjoy our city.”

  “I’m leaving.” Sara made to walk back up the steps as Grappel clutched her wrist.

  “You will stay.” All friendliness left his eyes.

  “Help me!” Sara called out to the students. A few turned to see her being held by the Doctor, but the man above ushered them out and stood in front of the closed door.r />
  Another man rushed into the bottom of the well and held both of her arms behind her. Sara screamed for help and struggled with the men, knocking one off as the man at the top hurried down and grabbed her, throwing her into a chair. Her efforts at resistance failed.

  Doctor Grappel pulled out a pair of manacles and secured her to the seat. He walked back through the door and came out again, this time attended by Doctor Miller, her old Belonnian professor from the Women’s School and the instigator of the recent rebellion in Shattuk Downs.

  “Sara Featherwood, the heroine of Shattuk Downs.” The words, spoken in Belonnian were sardonic and Sara’s thin hope of salvation were dashed. “We knew from the start that you were with the students. I vaguely remember Lily Evertrue, but you? How could I forget my best student and the destroyer of years of my efforts?” He stepped closer and pulled a pad of cotton wool from an oilcloth pouch and put it over her mouth.

  Struggling not to breathe, she continued to writhe in the chair, trying to get free. The thoughts of being unconscious in Belonnia sent waves of fear through her. Fighting to get out of the chair only winded her sooner and she had to gasp for air. Her mind reeled as the drug entered her lungs and she noticed her eyelids droop while she passed out.

  ~~~

  Chapter Fourteen

  Interrogation and Revelation

  Sara woke in a dark room. Her bare feet felt the cold through the tile floor as she walked to a tiny frosted window letting in dim moonlight through blurry lines of decorative wrought iron. Only in a Belonnian prison, she thought. The bindings hurt her wrists and her head pounded with pain.

  The door opened. “Come with me,” Miller said as he stood with uniformed guards holding lamps.

  “My feet are bound.” Sara said. Her head still spun and she couldn’t think very clearly. She leaned over for her knife.

  “Your precious little weapon is not there. Unlike Parthians, we have women guards who search female prisoners,” Miller said with cold hate in his voice.

  Two men took her by the arms and yanked her towards the door. Her old shoulder injury complained and she let out a moan.

  “Now’s not the time, Sara. When we’re through with you, your shoulder may be the only place that doesn’t hurt.” He jerked his head and walked off. Sara’s escort dragged her behind him, pulling her along through one corridor and then upstairs. Sara’s toes jammed against stone steps causing her to gasp in pain, yet her captors never stopped dragging her through the dungeons.

  A sconce with a smoking oil lamp illuminated a door bound in iron. Miller opened it for the guards and hastily pointed them inside. The two men plopped her into a chair, anchored to a stone floor and then they buckled restraints over her arms and ankles. Miller dismissed the guards and rubbed his hands.

  He sat down and grabbed a long wooden baton from off of a table full of other things. He smacked it on the fat of his palm. The light from another poorly trimmed oil lamp lent it’s greasy light to the dismal room. Sara didn’t like the look on Miller’s face.

  “You can make this easier on yourself by telling me all you know,” her former professor said.

  Sara had read a scene like this in a novel. It shocked her to realize that the scene had come to life and she now sat in a dungeon ready to be tortured. What could she possibly know that these men didn’t? If they had samples of the percussive powder, now knowing their scientific capabilities, they knew all she could possibly say. She didn’t think she had to be a heroine. All she had to do was tell them part of what she knew.

  The shock of it all began to clear her head. How could the Belonnians be so cruel. It wasn’t the common people. She remembered the coachman and innkeeper. They all tried to live normal lives, but the Millers and Pockmackles of Belonnia made her shiver. Especially Miller and especially now.

  “I know quite a bit, Doctor Miller, if your name is really Miller.”

  “Millinak. Sellak Millinak. I am a Professor of Languages and Political Philosophy, now back at Okalla University. I did mean what I said about you being my best student. No one has ever learned to mimic my Okallan accent, except you. Now I want you to use your superb command of the Belonnian language to tell us all about percussive powder.”

  “Do you have some?” Sara asked. She wouldn’t be tortured for nothing.

  “We do, as a matter of fact.” Sara tried to keep the fear out of her voice. She didn’t want to hurt and she didn’t want to be subject to these people. She longed for Parthy and Shattuk Downs, at least her home before her mother died. The world seemed to go crazy after her mother’s funeral. “West provided us with small crate of it from the mines in exchange for our letting him set up his little dictatorship. Another compliment to you, my dear Sara, for getting rid of him and his men, although I hear your father now has taken his place. That is too bad, isn’t it, Miss Featherwood?”

  So they didn’t know about her real paternity and that was a tiny comfort. She took a deep breath to give her a few seconds to think.

  “You should be able to get the material active enough yourself, then. Doctor Grappel is a competent chemist.”

  Millinak hit her forearm with the baton. Sara couldn’t help but scream. He hit her injured shoulder and she screamed again. She couldn’t resist writhing in pain. Sara lost her focus.

  “I’m not interrogating Doctor Grappel! I’m talking to you. What did you do to refine it?”

  Sara gritted her teeth to think straight as the pain ran down her arm. Millinak poked the end into her ribs. She gasped. What had she done to this man to deserve this kind of treatment? Holding back on information they could easily discover would only get her more bruises.

  “Wash it in distilled water, bake the water out for four hours. Crush it to fine particles, slowly. Store it dry in desiccant until you pack it up. Water in the air will weaken the reaction.”

  Millinak slapped her face. “You ruined my career, you know.” He hit her with his fist next. “I’ll make you pay.”

  Sara fought to remain conscious. “You don’t need my answers?” Sara said through an aching jaw. He hit her thigh with the baton. She couldn’t help but cry out. What did she do to deserve this? He would kill her. Sara began to sob. Kill her just because she had rescued the Duke? Her fear turned to anger and she found that anger helped mask the pain.

  The anger could be used to burn Miller up, but then what? They were locked in a room. She could only hope to hang on and endure the beating, hoping he wouldn’t kill her.

  “Grappel has already secured enough of a sample to know what the powder consists of Parthite or whatever you call the material, sodium, sulfur and carbon. The residue from your pipe exploder helped him determine the nature of the reaction. Yes, we know, but I want to make you pay.” He hit her on her hand and then kept it up until Grappel entered the room.

  “Stop this, Sellak! You’ve done enough to hurt her. What has she admitted?”

  “Not enough to keep me from beating the life out of her!” Grappel grabbed the baton from Millinak and called for the guards. After Grappel looked at what Millinak had done, they dragged him away. Why did she pull out the worst in some professors, comparing Miller to West? The shock of Grappel’s appearance erased her anger and all of the pain creeped in. She couldn’t help but cry, and the crying helped numb the pain.

  Grappel apologized for Millinak’s ‘enthusiasm’ and asked the same technical questions that Millinak had already received answers to. She had to fight through tears to answer him, but she didn’t want to hurt any more,

  She didn’t hate Grappel and she couldn’t generate the anger that helped her withstand the pain from Millinak’s blows. She began to sob uncontrollably, feeling wretched for doing so, but as the crying replaced anger, she knew why Hedge didn’t talk about the details of the processes.

  After Sara had told him all she knew, Grappel let her sob for a while.

  Sara took a few deep breaths and asked, “What’s all this about ground oil?”

  “Since you
’ll be staying with us indefinitely, I’ll tell you. We have refined it to increase its volatility and now have fire weapons. Hedge shall find out about them soon enough. The secret? Catalysts, my dear. You know something about them—catalysts that move the impurities out and change the nature of the oil. But that’s all I’ll say.”

  Sara had just gotten more out of Grappel than what she had given him. All this time, no one had paid attention to the stuff in Parthy and now Dr. Hedge would have enough of a hint to see what good ground oil would do… if she could ever get out of this predicament.

  “When can I go back to my cell?” Her voice came out as croaking sound. All of the pain began to cloud up her mind and Sara began to slip into unconsciousness.

  “First you will take this,” Grappel said. “The formal version of the pain-killer and sleeping draught that you saw me create.”

  He put a packet of powder in a dirty glass of water and swished it around with his finger, and then he put it to her lips. As distasteful as the glass and Grappel’s finger-stirring were, she gulped down the contents—anything to reduce the pain.

  Sara thoughts began to blur even more as her escorts dragged her back to her tiny room.

  ~

  She opened puffy eyes, seeing a hazy square of sunlight splash against the wall. She sat up and blinked the sleep out and moved her limbs. No broken bones seemed like a gift after the nightmare she experienced last evening. She flexed her fingers and felt her limbs. Her bruises hurt, but Miller didn’t break any bones.

  After what seemed like a long time, the door flew open and two women rushed into the room. One removed her manacles and replaced the one on her wrist with a thick silken cord. She tied it tightly, making Sara’s eyes tear up from the pain. Both grabbed Sara, pulling her to her feet and half-dragging her out of the room without a single word. Every bruise on her body complained, but Sara bit her lower lip and vowed she would get out of this mess. She threw them off and straightened up.