“Nothing but having to watch you dance around with death, I told you.”
“No, I mean outside. Have our enemies discovered who you are, or located Ffip? Where’s Kannikey? Is she all right?”
“Kannikey and Ffip are both fine. ‘Our enemies’ as you call them, seem to have forgotten all about us. I’ve been going in to my shop to prepare for the festival coming up, Halbernon went back to his college, Kannikey has returned to her fancy house except when she stops to check in, and Ffip has been sleeping in my room,” Mars grumbled. “I’ve had to sleep on my sofa,” he added with disdain.
“Aha. Another wrong I’ve committed into the log book!” said Jeremy.
“Correct.”
Jeremy ran his fingers into his tangled hair and then thought better of it. “I’m sorry about that,” he said.
Mars’ glare turned so murderous that Jeremy laughed.
“Why do you hate it so much when I apologize?”
“We never used to sit around apologizing, did we, Jeremy? It was a good way to have things back when we understood each other. It’s intolerable dealing with it now.”
“Then stop requiring it of me.”
“Stop being such a…”
“All right, I’ve filled the bath for you!” sang Ffip, coming back in to the room at that moment.
Jeremy threw his blankets off and then frowned to realize that all he was wearing were his pants and his socks. He glanced up and saw Ffip staring at his chest and rib cage and biting her lip.
“Uh… Mars can help me if I need it from here,” he prompted.
“Oh… um, yes, of course,” she stuttered. But at least she went out.
“I don’t intend to help you into the bath room,” Mars growled. “Crawl there, if you must.”
“With that we agree on something. Get out of my way, except, where’re my clothes to change into when I’m done? You haven’t lost my pack, have you?”
“You mean your backpack with all the money you’ve got left in the world rolled up in your undershirts? Oh, I just tossed that into the fire when it got chilly outside.”
Jeremy looked up, after sniffing with a shake of his head at his armpit. He was relieved to hear a return of the man’s old sarcasm. Mars narrowed his eyes in a glare though.
“You see, Jeremy? It’s just like I said. You stink like an idiot.”
“And yet, I’ve got a bed in this big airy house of yours, and you’ve been sleeping on your sofa.”
“Not anymore. As soon as you’re out of here I’m going to stuff all those sheets from that bed into my burn pile and make this room up for myself. You’re sleeping on the sofa after this.”
“Anything to get you to stop complaining.”
“Me complaining!” the man bellowed.
Jeremy stood up, and then planted his feet wide until the room stopped spinning around. Black shapes moved around his vision for a moment, but he breathed deep until they passed. He was weak, but to his satisfaction he could make it. He pushed past Mars and, using the wall for support, made his way into the bath room. Inside he shut the door, found tooth brushing materials and made use of them, shed the rest of his clothes and sank down into the warm water with gratitude. It was filled up to his chest and he slipped under it and soaked his head. He got busy and washed his hair clean, rinsed, and then scrubbed himself. At last he leaned his head back and closed his eyes.
He heard the door open, but for just a second. When he opened his eyes and looked the door was shut again, but now his backpack was in the room so he could get dressed in his own clothes when he was done. Mars had gotten it for him.
Jeremy came out of the bath room after dressing and collapsed onto Mars’ sofa. The big open room of the man’s house was warm with flickering lights. The fireplace was crackling fire a few feet from the easy chair, the wall sconces along the front room wall were golden, and the chandelier of lights that hung between the kitchen and the dining table cast a healthy glow. In the kitchen steam powered the heat of the oven. The room was quiet. Mars had his back to him and was seated at a huge desk that dominated the corner near the hallway which led to the rest of the house.
Ffip came out of the bedroom a few moments after Jeremy had put his head back and silence had fallen on the room. She smiled and came and sat on the sofa next to him.
“Are you really feeling all right?” she asked.
“I’m fine.”
“You were so sick, Jeremy. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“I’m better now, thanks to all of you.”
“Mars has been taking care of your horse. He’s got a comfortable barn out in the yard, and he stopped in the market and had some hay delivered.”
“Sounds like I owe him some money.”
Mars creaked the chair when he turned around.
“I was going to keep the horse if you passed on, Jeremy,” he said.
“You’ll have to get over the loss.”
“The horse is so much less tiresome than you are, though.”
“Looking around this house of yours I’d say you’ve gotten used to having plenty anyway. You’ll get complacent.”
“I’m not the one who’s complacent,” Mars said.
“What do you mean by that?”
“That a homeless man shouldn’t be telling me what I need.”
“All I said was you’ve had everything go easy for too long.”
“Yeah, I had things real easy when my best friend shoved me off for no fault of my own, just as we were about to go into business together.”
“Seeing as how I shoved you off but handed along all the money we’d saved at the same time, I guess you did all right,” said Jeremy.
“Having to deal with money instead of you? Yes, you’re right.”
“You sound like you’re still upset about it, though. Maybe you’re begging me for another apology?”
“Try it and I’ll flatten you.”
“Sheesh!” interrupted Ffip in a high voice. “Would you two mind giving this a rest for the evening?”
“It’ll be hard,” grumbled Mars. “I don’t know how I never noticed before how irritating Jeremy is.”
“I guess my fist in your face might be irritating,” growled Jeremy.
“Actually no; care to try it?”
Ffip surged to her feet.
“Enough!” she exclaimed, and then glared at them. “Now, I’m not a servant here, you know.”
“No one said you were,” said Mars.
“I’ve made dinner for us, which was nice of me, correct?”
“Sure.”
“Then both of you,” she said with a frown, “shut up while I serve it.”
They sat down at the table which she’d set. The plates didn’t match but she’d made that an attractive thing, with folded bits of linen for napkins, three pottery bowls for the soup, squat glasses already half-filled with red wine in them, and a jar of evening wildflowers rounding off the centerpiece with a splash of fern. Jeremy could see that she’d meant it as a celebration so he made an effort. He turned and smiled at her.
“Don’t see why I’ve got to break bread with a man so stubborn he took poison in my place to prove he was right,” Mars grumbled.
Jeremy kicked him under the table.
“Shut up, Mars,” he added with satisfaction.
Chapter Twenty-Four (In Which Jeremy Meets His Match)
The argument ceased over dinner. Ffip directed the conversation back to lighter subjects. She got Mars discussing the preparations his shop was making for the upcoming festival.
The Loop Dance Festival occurred every year at this time, and it was when Tonturin celebrated its circular distinction from the other ten cities. A long, winding throng of dancers would weave up and down the city streets, curving around the market and finally ending up in a huge field owned by the city just outside of the town on the road to all the farmland. There the mass of people would coalesce into circles with the eldest citizens in the middle, the adults from 20
years old to 60 in a ring around them, and then the children looping in and out between them. The babies would be passed around their families, and the small children would dance solely with their parents and grandparents. Here was represented all of Tonturin, and for this time the population danced together as one- despite all conflicts, income levels or other differences. After the circle dance the festival would turn to feasting, shopping and other celebrations. Every business in the marketplace prepared to sell more on this day than any other day in the season.
“I haven’t been able, over the past nine days or so, to fully concentrate on my preparations,” Mars answered Ffip with a narrow-eyed glance in Jeremy’s direction. “Nevertheless we’ve got our inventory increased and the decorations made.”
“And will you dance in a costume?” Ffip asked.
“I’ll wear a costume, but I’ll be unable to join the circle dance. Someone has to mind the shop and I’ll give my assistants that time to join their families.”
“It sounds lonely.”
“It’s tradition among shop owners. Jeremy’s old boss Nemeth will do the same.”
Jeremy felt a sudden flash of regret. Nemeth had ordered all of his assistants the same costume and had paid for the fittings himself. Jeremy had been proud that he was to lead in the weave dance for Nemeth’s shop, since the man himself, like Mars had said, would stay to mind the store. Now some other main assistant would take his place and wear the costume that had fit him so well. But he pushed the emotion away.
“How many days until the festival?” he asked. “I’ve forgotten what day it is.”
“Three days,” Mars grunted.
“Hmmm.”
A silence fell between them, indicating that the conversation was dying down.
“Well,” said Ffip. “I guess I’d better clear up.”
Mars stood and stretched.
“I’ll help you,” he said.
“So will I,” said Jeremy, but they ignored him. He sat at the table and watched the two of them work. The conversation didn’t flourish again and in due course Mars excused himself, taking his ledgers and other paperwork into the guest room and shutting the door behind him. Ffip came and sat in the easy chair facing Jeremy where he stretched out on the sofa.
“I’m in disbelief that Mars actually kicked you out of the guest room,” she said. “He seemed so upset when it looked like nothing could save you.”
“I’m comfortable enough out here. But I’m wondering if I shouldn’t go find another place to stay.”
“No, Jeremy, you shouldn’t! It’s late!”
“I’ve got a horse, which is apparently more pleasing as a guest to Mars than I am.”
“If you go out tonight, Jeremy,” she pointed out. “What am I supposed to do? Stay in a man’s house by myself? After all, he might wish me gone as much as you.”
Jeremy saw that he’d made the girl feel awkward, when a half hour ago she’d been fine with staying here.
“Mars doesn’t mind you, or Kannikey in his house, I’m sure,” he said, leaning forward. “He’s angry with me, but that has nothing to do with you. And, you must admit, this situation is very unusual.”
“I’m just wondering if perhaps I should return to my little house. If it’s a mess, like you say, I should clean it up. I’m renting it and feel responsible for it.”
“Ffip, no; please don’t even think it. There’s danger. Do you think Mars wants you walking into that?”
She lifted her gaze and her eyes were so… he searched for the right description. Downy and soft, he decided. She blinked.
“And you…” she said at last. “How do you feel about my situation?”
He swallowed when their eyes connected. As the Time Mechanic he hoped that he never had a vision of anything happening to her. Worse would be if the villains actually did get a hold of her to dispose of once they had all they could take from her. He realized how strange it was that he cared so much about her when he barely knew anything about her. He accepted that he was attracted to her in a way that no woman had ever drawn him. Fiasca seemed a thousand years ago. He sighed.
“You and I, Fillipi, we’re not like the other two on our team. We’ve been seen now, and our names are known. For myself I can accept that my life has changed and there’s no going back. But for you, well, I wish you weren’t involved in all this. I hate that those villains want to go after you.”
“They’ve been after me since before I met you.”
“What happened then? You’ve never told us about your past.”
She smiled. “I told Kannikey and Mars, while you were sick.”
“Not fair, I’d say.”
“Mars said what you did wasn’t fair, or that he had to pick up the pieces and take care of you afterwards.”
“After I saved his life you mean?”
“I don’t think he sees it that way.”
“All he sees is a red haze of anger towards me.”
“I’m assuming there’s some other reason he’s so mad at you…?”
“Well whatever it is I’m through trying to fix it. Let’s get back to what’s important. Tell me why you’re in this situation. What was it you invented back in Tetoross?”
She got a small crinkle in between her eyebrows when she was concerned about something, he noticed. She shook her head and gave up trying to talk to him about Mars.
“I’m good with designs,” she said after a moment. “My father always said that if his children were talented then it was up to him to help us develop to our full potential. My older brother is a lawyer, my two older sisters married fine men and now influence society in Tetoross, and my younger sister can sing like a little bird, even though she’s only 12. I always considered myself the odd one, but my father never did. He told me that, in my way, I’m the most talented of all of us. He sent me to our college to study with the young men engineers in our city. It was hard to be accepted at first among my peers. But my professor…”
She stumbled to a stop.
“Go on.”
“I thought I could trust him. That he would be a mentor to me. But he seemed uncomfortable with my ideas and always gave me low marks. I wanted to design a steam contraption capable of helping people. Having two uncles that run farms at the edge of Tetoross I knew what would benefit their crops. I designed a steam eagle.”
“A steam eagle?” he said in amazement.
“You’ve seen the balloons that float to the sky? They have a large basket that people can stand in; so they can be lifted high and take flight? These contraptions can be directed by ropes reaching to the ground or by altering the heat and letdown of the gases that fill them. Creating the steam and gas mixture to fill them is difficult. Steering such a balloon takes space in the sky and is more of a general drift side to side only. That’s why the balloons tend to be used more as a curiosity or as a way to give pleasure rides than for farm work.”
“That makes sense.”
“My steam eagle, however, has the ability to— once the gases that fill its overhead balloon do the initial work of elevating it to the sky— be flown like a bird until the steam runs out. There’s a bench inside the head, and the mechanisms for the pilot mean that the eagle can be steered with accuracy. Inside the belly of the contraption large deposits of water can be carried to irrigate the crops, or fertilizer or pest repellant can be placed inside. There’s also a steam diffuser that can be attached, for certain fertilizers are best dissolved into mist that then clings to the plant life below.”
“The steam diffuser…” Jeremy whispered. His eyes widened at the possibilities for the villains who were determined to use the steam eagle for themselves.
“Anyway I’d just completed my designs and was excited to exhibit them at an engineering symposium that takes place in Tetoross each year. I turned them in to my professor, but I never got them back. He stole them and presented them to the symposium as his own design.”
Jeremy sat up in outrage.
“Surely y
ou could prove that he was lying!” he exclaimed.
“Perhaps if I’d been a male engineering student instead of a female one,” she agreed. “But he had the upper hand in telling his tale to the college leadership. I was an odd little girl who in general created inferior designs that didn’t function properly. He had a few of my contraptions which I’d built myself to exhibit. I’d fumbled a bit in the building of them… well; you’ve seen how my contraptions tend to work here in Tonturin.”
“And so you had to let the man have your designs?”
“I did. I was upset as I left the college offices. I’d just been asked to quit the school, for trying to steal a superior’s design instead of the other way around. On my way to the door I tripped and fell over the edge of the table leg. I took the table down with me and it was a mess.”
“I’m sorry. That’s a terrible way to leave your accusers after being crushed like that.”
“It was,” she said, nodding vigorously. “I was so mortified the tears of frustration I’d been holding back dripped down to the edge of my nose. It was awful, except for one thing.”
“And what’s that?”
“I’d knocked my designs all over the floor too when I fell. I looked down under my hand as I was rising to my feet and there it was; the sheet that held the most unique and important part of my design.”
Jeremy smiled.
“The head of the eagle,” he supplied.
“Yes! I scrunched it in my hand and ran from the room. No one noticed at the time what I’d done. Perhaps I shouldn’t have taken it, but I felt no remorse when I removed it that morning. Regret came a few days later.”
“What do you mean?”
Her clear eyes blinked away emotion.
“They came after my sister,” she said. “I’d gone to visit one of my cousins after the incident. I just wanted to hide away for a little while and speak to no one. I couldn’t be found so they attacked her.”
“What did they do? Was she all right?”
“There were three big men, Jeremy, shaking a little girl. She was so frightened. They demanded that she tell them where I was. They told her I was a thief and a liar and if she didn’t give up my location they’d have me arrested. I’d stolen part of the Professor’s designs and they wanted it back. When she refused to speak about me they threw her down. It broke her arm. My parents sent word to me, but told me not to come home. They thought there was someone watching my house for my return and stopping the mail delivery man every time he’d come with mail. And so I ran. I wrote a letter telling my parents that I’d gone far away and I didn’t know when I’d come home. That way those awful men would leave my family alone when they stole the mail and read my message.”
The Time Mechanic Page 17