Flaire.”
“Please, Madame, you must call me Pietro. Everyone does.”
“Of course.”
“Yes, the construct of the ship was many years in the making, but I find it suits me and my performers quite singularly.”
Asher smiled in a way that had often turned a tougher man's insides to ice. “Tell me about the side show, Pietro.”
“The side show.”
“Or, as they say, the freak show.”
“Ah. Yes, well, it is not exactly my cup of tea, but the guests to do enjoy it for some reason. Far be it from me to deny them anything which they may wish.”
“It is rather terrifying, isn't it?” I remarked.
“That is, my dear, precisely the point.”
“I was quite taken with the young lady who performed the snake charming,” Asher said abruptly.
I glanced sidelong at him, concealing my irritation behind a sparkling beam. Pietro lifted his thick, dark eyebrows. “Ah. You and so many others. The dear girl is quite popular. Her act is...extraordinary.”
“It is indeed. Why, it practically had us all hypnotised.”
Pietro smiled. “It is meant for the snake, you know. To keep it under control.”
“Indeed,” I said. “Under control, as you say.”
“Well.” He cast us another beaming smile. “I am afraid I must greet my other guests. I do appreciate your patronage, and it was a great pleasure to meet you.”
“It was that, Pietro. I do hope we meet again soon.” Asher did not shake the man's hand, but he turned to watch him dissolve into the admiring crowd. “What do you think of him?”
“I think there is something very wrong at play on this ship,” I replied grimly. “It is by a most convenient stroke of fortune that we find ourselves here.”
Vera was still gushing with the couple at the next table. “Ah. That was quite quick,” Xander remarked as we seated ourselves beside them. “Did your little conference yield any interesting information?”
“No. Indeed, it did not,” I replied. “Although I am most convinced the mysterious master Flaire is quite aware that our presence here does not bode well for those who might be attempting to disguise illegitimate enterprises.”
Asher eyed the crowd. “Have you noticed the snake charmer about?”
I rolled my eyes. “Are you hoping to secure a private audience with the young lady?”
He snorted most uncouthly. “No, Astrid. But I think she might be somehow involved in all this.”
“Do you?”
“If something sinister is occurring on this ship, whatever it was seems to have happened whilst the charmer was playing that unusual instrument.”
“Yes,” Xander said keenly. “When we heard the clockwork.”
“But what could it be?” I asked. “I am not an engineer or an expert in machines by any stretch of the imagination, but I cannot suss how a machine could be connected in any way to hypnosis. It simply makes no sense in the logical world.”
“I am sensing, Astrid,” Juliana put in, “that we left the logical world far below us. Here, amidst the clouds and among the firmament, things are very different indeed.”
“Perhaps the young lady may possess insight into the workings of the machine,” Asher said, peering around.
The snake charmer, however, was not amongst the players mingling with the ecstatic crowd. Perhaps she was, as Pietro had intimated, quite popular and thoroughly engaged with a number of her admirers. Perhaps she was among them, costumed as a funambulist or simply avoiding the throng, desiring a quiet moment alone in the wake of the performance.
“Did your man make mention of the clockwork?” Xander asked.
“No. If he is aware of the thing, he did not think it worthy of discussion. However, I suspect he is quite deficient in such observations. He might never have even realised it exists.”
“Where is the young man?” Asher asked. “Is he among the crowd?”
I spotted him almost instantly. “Yes. He is just there, chatting up that table of young gentleman. He is...a bit unusual in his particular tastes.”
“Ah. I see.” If this offended Asher, it did not show on his face. “He does not appear to be particularly preoccupied with the safety of the guests at the moment.”
“No, indeed he does not. He is rather capricious. Let us hope he will still be of a state to offer assistance.”
Vera lurched suddenly to her feet, but then she wobbled dangerously and dropped back down into the thick, padded chair. “Oh.” She giggled. Asher looked around at her in alarm, half-rising from his seat. “I think the wine must have gone right to my head. I am feeling quite out of myself.”
Asher gripped her elbow to assist her to her feet. “I believe it is time for bed, Mother.”
“Yes. Yes, bed would be quite nice.”
“I will take you.”
She waved her hand. “No. No, dear. I am a grown woman. I am perfectly capable of minding myself.” She peered around at us with a curiously baffled little smile. “And I am sure you have better things to be getting up to than suffering the company of a silly old woman.”
Juliana rose to take the old woman's arm. “I will escort you to your room, Mrs Key. I would be happy to have a few moments away from all the excitement.”
Vera eyed her as though she suspected she might be putting her on. Then she smiled. “Thank you, dear. Such a nice young lady you are, no matter what they say about your father.”
Juliana's smile hardly wavered. “You can catch me up when I return.”
“Of course.” Asher watched them go with a small frown. Whilst he was otherwise occupied, I turned to my sensible young cousin. “What do you think, Xander? Have you any theories about our mysterious machine?”
“I am, I must admit, quite baffled. Though I am quite certain our clockwork is connected in some way to the mysterious snake charmer, neither Juliana nor I can imagine why or in what way. It is quite beyond the scope of our collective experience, I'm afraid.”
“I do hope there will be some explanation from our client, even if it is of the utterly mundane sort.”
“I will accompany you to the meeting,” Asher said suddenly.
I lifted my chin. “I, too, am perfectly capable of minding myself, Ash.”
He frowned. “It is not a matter of your abilities, Astrid. I know of what you are capable, but I suspect you will require the might of the Ministry on your side in case the situation deteriorates.”
“Ah. Yes.” I considered this. “For once, I do agree with you. You may accompany me, but do remember this is my case. The MOD has no claim upon it just yet.”
His expression softened into a wry smile. “All right. I am in your service, then, Mrs Darby. This is, as they say, your show.”
I inclined my head imperiously. “Thank you, sir. I am much obliged.” I examined my pocket watch once more, but ten o'clock was some time away.
Our mood did not lighten as we awaited Juliana's return and the stroke of ten o'clock. Juliana's arrival occurred promptly, however. Her expression was troubled as she rejoined the table. “Is my mother quite well?” Asher asked anxiously.
Juliana smiled. “Oh, yes. She is quite all right. A bit shaken, but she is tucked safely away for the evening. I have been thinking, I do believe her condition and the condition of our fellows guests must be the result of the snake charmer's melody.”
“Yes, we had all formed the same conclusion,” I reminded her. “Though it was the clockwork with which we were chiefly concerned.”
“I was present for the discussion,” Juliana reminded me. “I have been considering it most intently, but I am afraid my expertise runs towards chemicals and physics.”
“We should have asked Morgan along,” Xander remarked, frowning thoughtfully. “He might have identified our unique ticking noise without any trouble.”
“I am not certain that is true,” Juliana continued. “I believe it is something most unique. If it is, indeed, connected to the snake charmer
's melodies, the machine we seek may, in fact, be an instrument whose primary purpose is to harness the energies of the audience.”
We all stared at her in utter incomprehension. “I beg your pardon, Juliana?” I demanded. “I am not a great expert in science, but such a thing sounds utterly ludicrous.”
“It is not so, Astrid,” Xander told me. “It has long since been theorised that human beings in large groups possess quite enough body energy to be sufficient to generate power, should it be properly harnessed and applied.”
“Perhaps the engineers of our mysterious clockwork are using the energies of the audience to power the ship.”
“But that would require kinetic energy,” Xander mused. Asher and I glanced at each other with identical expressions of bemusement. “The audience was hypnotised. We could reasonably assume the engineers could power a generator with the excess energy of the audience, but I am not sure what could be done whilst they were sitting still.”
“It is a wild theory,” Asher remarked. “I am not sure I can credit it, though there is much about modern scientific progress of which I know very little. Nevertheless, there is something quite odd about my mother's behaviour. It is as though something has been taken from her. I could, in some way, credit that the hypnotist's song is the source.”
“We might theorise all evening and never reach a proper conclusion,” I remarked absently, for my gaze sought young Eitenne. He had abandoned his gaggle of admirers, and his eyes darted furtively about the room as though ensuring his movements had not fallen under the master's scrutiny. Apparently deciding he was safe to proceed, he slipped out of the
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