“We have to get across,” Thad said. “Right now. We’ll commandeer one of those boats. A big one will hold Kalvis. Then-”
“Over there!” Sofiya pointed upstream.
A great grinding and clattering came from upstream at the smaller island on which rested the Peter and Paul Fortress. One of the four flags fluttered bloodred, indicating the presence of Tsar Alexander. The weaponry and cannons that lined the walls atop the fortress were clanking around to focus on Vasilyevsky Island. Thad remembered the firepower he had seen in the fortress and he felt the blood drain from his face.
“The fortress! We have to stop them!”
“What about-?”
Thad thought fast, incredibly fast. “Take Kalvis. Go to the fortress and stop the tsar. You saved his life just this morning, and he might listen to you. I’ll go the island and find Nikolai.”
“But if they bombard the island, you’ll both be caught in it.”
“Then you must be incredibly persuasive.” He slid to the ground. “Go!”
“Wait!” Sofiya leaped down as well and slapped Kalvis’s rear. His backside opened, just like it did in the ring, and the colt slid out. Sofiya unfolded its slender legs and neck. “He’s freshly wound and ready. He won’t last long, but he might help.”
“Applesauce!” squawked Dante.
“He?”
“Just take him. And Maddie, too. She has been down there before and knows the way to Nikolai.” Maddie squeaked and jumped down to the colt’s back. Then Sofiya kissed Thad on the mouth. “Take that to our son. From his mama. And bring him back.”
Sofiya mounted Kalvis again and galloped away, leaving Thad to stare after her.
* * *
Down at the River Neva, Thad and his automatons joined the crowd at the bank. A few talked and gesticulated, but most remained hushed and frightened. Everyone was staring across the water.
“It is a nation of clockworkers…”
“…killed Parkarov and tried to assassinate the tsar…”
“…will kill us all, mark my…”
“…tsar will destroy…”
“…must rise up and throw off the yoke of the tsar…”
The latter comment got Thad’s attention for a moment. A few people were shaking halfhearted signs of the “overthrow the tsar” sort in the crowd, but at this point, no one was seemed interested in revolution. Instead, people were counting on the tsar and his army to solve the problem. Thad wondered how long it would take Zygmund Padlewski and his friends to figure out that Mr. Griffin had been using them as a distraction and as free labor for his own ends.
From this vantage point, he could see the triangular set of buildings that made up the Academy. The buildings were now draped in cables. Spiders ran up and down them, and strange objects festooned the walls and roof. Grinding gears and puffing pistons and winding pulleys worked toward some goal Thad couldn’t fathom. Buried somewhere beneath that building was Nikolai, his little shadow. He wanted to tear the building apart, brick by brick.
It’s just because he reminds you of David, he told himself. He’s exactly the same as all those other machines on the street-following orders from his memory wheels. The real reason you’re upset is that Griffin manipulated you and got away with it. Stop the machines, and then stop him.
The trouble lay with the automatons. Hundreds of them worked in the streets or on the buildings, some with human grace, others with machine jerkiness. No man would be able to walk through without being noticed.
Thad turned and ran all the way back to the circus with the colt right behind him. He found the place in equal disarray, with people bustling about and hurrying in a dozen directions, but it was a disarray he recognized. The circus was pulling up stakes. He came across Nathan in his Aran sweater, shouting orders at the roustabouts, who were just starting work on the Tilt. Behind the wagons, steam puffed from the locomotive.
“Thad! Good God, we’ve been worried!” Nathan clapped him on the shoulder in half an embrace. “Where are Sofiya and Nikolai? And why do you have the colt out?”
“We’re leaving?” Thad blurted out.
“Bless my soul,” said Dante.
“Dangerous to stay, what with everything going on. Warsaw’s a much better venue. You’re coming, right? We need you for-”
A twinge at the name of his old home passed through Thad. “You didn’t move my wagon, did you? I need a few things.”
Moments later, Thad was back at the riverbank with Dante and Maddie on the colt’s back. His good hand was wrapped in rags, and pieces of an automaton head from his collection were tucked under his arm. His pistols and knives and other equipment were hidden under his long brown jacket. He pushed his way through the crowd to the edge. There was a six-foot drop to the river, and a great many boats tied up below. Before he could think overmuch, he dropped into one of the larger ones. The colt hesitated only a moment, and followed. Dante screeched and flapped his wings frantically all the way down. The boat rocked, but didn’t tip over.
“Hey!” shouted a voice from above. “That’s my-”
“Sorry!” Thad was already rowing away. People were pointing and talking excitedly, but Thad ignored them. The current here was slow, and Thad was able to row upstream past the Academy to a section of the island where the streets were markedly less busy, and he made for it. This side also had a drop to the water, and Thad tied the boat to a ring near a set of rungs set into the stone embankment. Moving quickly to avoid losing the momentum he was building, he set the pieces of automaton head around his own, fitting them over his forehead and under his jaw and tying them in place with leather thongs. His brass hand was working perfectly now, or he couldn’t have managed it. Then he covered his hair with a battered hat a size too large for him and checked his reflection in the river. He looked like an adult version of Nikolai.
Thad tied a length of rope from the bottom of the boat around the colt’s neck, set Dante on one shoulder and Maddie on the other, and climbed the rungs. When he reached the top, he pulled the colt up with the rope and set it on the edge.
They were on a street several blocks upstream from the Academy building. Overhead cables connected the buildings, and power thrummed in them. Speakers similar to the ones Mr. Griffin used hung from cornices, and they spoke in Mr. Griffin’s voice.
“Father loves each and every one of you. Love is obedience, obedience is love. When we work together as brothers, we are all rewarded. All our machine brothers are equal, and we must work together to create a kind and gentle haven in this hostile human world. Listen to your father. Father knows you better than you know yourself and has your best interests at heart. Father loves you deeply, for he created you and will never steer you wrong.”
The words turned Thad’s stomach. Mr. Griffin had said the free-willed automatons would obey him as a son obeys a father, but he didn’t know Mr. Griffin meant it more or less literally. The automatons worked as if nothing were out of the ordinary. Odd machinery protruded here and there and everywhere, cranking and grinding and puffing. The air smelled of oily smoke. A troop of knee-high spiders scuttled by. Thad’s pulse was so loud in his ears, it seemed to echo inside the heavy mask he wore. But the spiders ignored him. Dante leaned forward, as if to jump after them, and Thad put up his brass hand.
“Don’t,” he said in an undertone.
“Applesauce.”
Thad walked toward the Academy. Then he paused and put a lurch in his step instead. He passed a pair of brassy automatons who were working on a metal spire sticking out of a wall. Their faces were vaguely human, but their bodies and limbs showed gears. They wore ill-fitting shirts and no trousers at all. The only part of Thad that showed was his brass hand, and he lurched past them with his three automaton companions without looking at them, though the eye slits in his metal mask didn’t afford him much of a view. The automatons paid him no attention. Thad took a deep breath inside the mask. This might work, then.
I’m coming, Nikolai, he thought. Just hang
on a little longer.
* * *
Five soldiers guarded the arched gateway of the fortress, and they aimed their rifles when Kalvis galloped up. Sofiya brought the horse up short and leaped to the ground. The portcullis was up, at least, and Sofiya could see into the fortress beyond. She prayed Thad was right, that Tsar Alexander was here.
“No one enters!” one of the soldiers barked. “Leave now!”
“I must speak to the tsar,” she said. “Urgently!”
“No one sees the tsar!” the soldier repeated. “Certainly not a woman with unknown clockwork machinery.”
Sofiya walked quietly up to him, her arms spread wide. Kalvis came behind her. “I am the woman who saved the tsar’s life earlier today. I must speak to him. He will want to see me.”
The soldier refused to budge. “This is your final warning.”
It took but a moment for her to work out where every soldier was standing, how much each weighed, what kind of pressure it would take to move them. Sofiya moved. She wrenched the rifle out of the surprised soldier’s hands and smacked his temple with it. Before he went down, she punched a second soldier in the chest with the stock and elbowed a third in the nose. Bone crunched. Kalvis casually kicked the fourth soldier in the midriff and he went flying into the river. Sofiya whipped round and trained her new rifle on the fifth soldier, who was now facing Sofiya by himself.
“Drop your weapon, soldier. This isn’t worth your salary.”
He obeyed, and Sofiya hit him. He went down. Sofiya leaped onto Kalvis’s back and urged him through the gate.
They arrived in the fortress proper and Sofiya paused a moment to look around. A great many narrow streets and buildings were everywhere, but Thad had said the place crawled with automatons. She saw none here. Only soldiers occupied the place now. Purple shadows slid out of corners and crevices. Smells of oil and gunpowder and hot metal filled the air. Atop the wall, platoons of soldiers moved machines of war-cannons cranked around by clockwork machinery, the great automatons ready to fling projectiles, kegs of powder, stacks of cannonballs, rockets, bombs, catapults, and other machines. The sight of them made her heart race and brought a tang of coppery excitement to her mouth. She itched to examine them up close, take them apart, play with them, improve them. She pushed the impulse aside. This was not the time. Everything was being moved around to aim at Vasilyevsky Island-and Nikolai.
A lieutenant rode up on a horse, a normal one. “What are you doing here? Who let you in? No civilians are-”
“The tsar sent for me,” she snapped. “Show me to him. Immediately!”
“The tsar? But he wouldn’t-”
“This machine,” Sofiya gestured to Kalvis, “carries information, weaknesses about the clockwork island. The tsar has commanded me to bring it to him personally. Now, Lieutenant!”
The lieutenant hesitated, then nodded. “This way.”
He led them toward the wall, where a pavilion had been hastily erected over several tables. The tsar stood among them, surrounded by military men of rank, examining long, unrolled documents. He looked up in surprise when Sofiya and the lieutenant rode up. The men moved to intercept, but the tsar waved them aside and ordered Sofiya’s approach instead, to her relief. Her bluff had worked. The lieutenant bowed and withdrew.
“I never had the chance to thank you, Miss Ekk,” Alexander said. “My life was threatened twice in one day, and you rescued me. Russia owes you a great debt. I only wish we weren’t occupied by-”
“Ser,” Sofiya interrupted, greatly daring, “this is why I’ve come. I have news.”
Alexander raised his eyebrows, and a man Sofiya didn’t recognize stepped forward. “Majesty, we should continue. We have the southwestern sector and the northwestern sector ready, but we must ascertain how to train the weapons on the east, and the sun is setting. Also, the remaining clockworkers we brought up from the prison to calibrate everything are proving less than cooperative.”
“In a moment, Major,” the tsar said. “What is so urgent that you barged up here, Miss Ekk?”
For a dreadful moment, Sofiya couldn’t speak. There was so much to explain, and it was all so complicated. The weapons and the men on the wall were readying to attack at any moment, and if he made a mistake, Nikolai and Thad would be caught in the middle of it. She was sick with worry, and now she had to plead her case before one of the most powerful and ruthless men in the world, one who hated clockworkers. The strain made her glance with envy at the battlements on the wall. Among the soldiers were men and even a few women in ragged, filthy clothes. Clockworkers, all of whom had been threatened with execution only hours earlier. They were working on the machines under the sharp supervision of guards armed with whips and pistols. They didn’t seem to notice-the machines consumed them. Sofiya suddenly ached to join them, let the world go and plunge into a world of numbers and gears, where everything always made sense. It would be easy enough. Just walk up and start working. There would no doubt be consternation and even some shouting at first, but everything would calm down quickly enough, and she could-
No. Nikolai and Thad were counting on her.
“Ser,” she said, “you are about to fire on an innocent. The boy Nikolai is on that island. Please-Mr. Sharpe and I saved your life twice, and the lives of your children. Now you can repay that debt by saving them.”
The major scoffed and went back to the maps and charts. The tsar gave Sofiya a long look. “This is an entire city,” he said. “Those machines have taken an entire section of it and thrown the humans out. More than a hundred people have died in the panic, and I have lost the Academy of Sciences, the Kunstkammer, the docks, the foundry, all of it, and heaven only knows what will happen next. You can’t expect that I will simply leave those clockworker abominations to their own devices to help a single automaton child, even to repay the greatest debt.”
“The machines haven’t actually killed anyone,” Sofiya pressed. “People died from other causes.”
“Does that matter?” The tsar sounded angry now. “They have attacked my city, my country. These filthy machines are rising up to take the place of men, and you are asking me to step back because one of the machines might be innocent? We must destroy them, and then we will finish destroying all clockworkers to ensure it never happens again!”
Sofiya suppressed a grimace. Nikolai hung in the balance, and she couldn’t give it up.” How long will it take to prepare the attack?” she asked.
“No more than ten minutes, perhaps twenty. We are racing the sun.”
“An hour, my lord,” Sofiya said wildly. “I beg you. Put off the attack one hour. Please!”
The major had returned in time to catch the last part of the conversation. “Sire, I really must advise against that. The clockwork machinery on the island is growing exponentially.”
“I agree, Major. I’m sorry, Miss Ekk, but I cannot put the country in jeopardy even to repay this debt.”
Sofiya’s heart sank. In ten minutes, Thad and Nikolai would be at the center of a whirlwind attack-and she would have to watch. There had to be something she could say, something she could do. Desperately, she cast about, but nothing came to mind. Her hand went to her skirt pocket, where she kept the picture of her sister Olenka in her wheelchair.
“If that is all, Miss Ekk,” the tsar said politely, as if they were back in his drawing room and not on a clockwork battlefield, “I must return to-”
“There’s more,” Sofiya said faintly.
“More?”
“Ser, I should tell you one last thing.” The words came slowly, as if pulled from her on a chain. She knew Thad often felt caught between two extremes. It was a position she herself didn’t understand-why didn’t he simply pick one side or the other? But now she understood. The middle path was familiar, while the two extremes were filled with terrifying unknowns. Now she had to choose one. She touched the picture in her pocket again, met the tsar’s gaze, and chose without blinking.
“I can give you the identity
and the location of the clockworker who is behind everything that has happened these last few days,” she said. “I would be willing to give it to you in exchange for that single hour.”
“Sire!” said the major.
“Wait.” Alexander held up a hand. “Why did you not come forward with this information before, Miss Ekk?”
Sofiya swallowed. She had chosen, and there was no reason to hesitate. Still, it was hard. “The clockworker said his machines are watching my sister Olenka Ivanova Ekk. She lives nearby. The clockworker said if I ever moved against him, he would kill her.”
“I see.” The tsar drummed his fingers on the table and Sofiya held her breath. He was going to order the attack anyway. She had just betrayed Olenka for nothing. Men were all the same.
“Tell me who it is, and you will have your hour, Miss Ekk,” the tsar said. “Then our debt is repaid and the attack will begin, no matter who is on that island.”
Sofiya’s knees went weak. “Thank you, sire.”
“And when this is over,” he added, “we will send someone to look after your sister. Will that do?”
Without thinking, Sofiya grasped his hand and kissed the back. He allowed it for rather longer than he should have, and their eyes met. Sofiya remembered Alexander’s reputation for taking mistresses, and for a dreadful moment, she though he might try to add her to his collection. Then he took his hand back and the moment ended.
“Sire,” she hurried to add, “there is still more. The rest of the prisoners in the cells-General Parkarov only rounded them up to distract Mr. Sharpe from learning who the real assassin was. They’re innocent. Could you set them free? It costs you nothing.”
The tsar stared at her. Perhaps this time she had pushed too far. But he said, “Very well. See to it in the morning, Major.”
“Ser.”
“And now, the information, Miss Ekk? Your hour is ticking.”
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