by Paton, Chris
“The Russian Expeditionary Force,” Stepan watched as the soldiers formed a perimeter around the front of the locomotive. The rider twitched his riding stick, stopping his horse level with the door to the locomotive. “But what are they doing here?”
“Zdravstvuyte,” the rider leaned forward, resting his hands on the pommel of his saddle. “Won’t you open the door?” He called out. “I would like to talk.”
“Look at the rifle hanging beneath his saddle,” Lena fingered the handle of her pistol.
“I can’t see it,” Stepan crossed to the door.
Lena turned. “A Lightning Jezail,” her eyes flickered in the early dawn light. “I know this man.”
“You’re sure?” Stepan reached for the door handle.
“Da, I am sure.” Lena let go of the pistol. “He is a friend of the Cossacks. A friend of my father. His name is...”
“Then let us meet him,” Stepan lifted the door handle and pushed. His eyes squinting at sound of metal grating upon metal, Stepan pushed the door all the way open. Taking a deep breath of air, Stepan turned to face the rider.
“Kapitan Skuratov?” The rider urged his mount forward with a click of his tongue. “You look a little worse for wear.”
“You have me at a disadvantage,” Stepan leaned a hand against the door. “I do not know your name, sir.”
“True. True enough,” the rider scratched at his beard. “Let me introduce myself. My name is...”
“Bryullov,” Lena slipped beneath Stepan’s arm and jumped down to the tracks. Gripping her side on landing, she straightened and saluted the rider with her right hand. Turning back to the locomotive, she smiled up at Stepan. “This is Kapitan Lev Bryullov.”
“Kapitan Bryullov?” Stepan buttoned his uniform jacket. “I thought you were in Afghanistan?”
“As I was,” Bryullov nodded. He swept his arm and gestured at the plain. “Now I am here.”
Chapter 16
The Regal Giant
The North Sea
June, 1851
Hannah stuck close to Blaidd as they climbed down the ladders into the cargo hold next to the engine room. Reaching the bottom rung, Hannah followed Blaidd through the throng of passengers chattering about the spectacle they had been promised. Blaidd led Hannah all the way to the front, to the door of the engine room where Khaos stood waiting to receive them. Hannah lifted a hand to her mouth to hide the smile growing on her lips.
“You are late,” Khaos twitched, tugging at twists of matted hair. “Aether wanted you here half an hour ago.”
Blaidd gestured at the passengers. “The place is packed. The going was slow, eh?”
Khaos took a deep breath. “Aether wants you inside.”
Hannah pushed past Blaidd. Leaning in close to Khaos she glanced at the demon’s hands. “Are you all right, Romney?” Hannah pressed her hand upon Khaos’ wrist. “You look worried.”
“I am not worried,” Khaos shrugged Hannah’s hand off her wrist.
“Really? We heard that another demon had come through from the passage.” Hannah smiled as Khaos twitched. “Perhaps someone you know?”
Blaidd gripped Hannah’s arm, pulling her a step backward as thin blue tendrils shimmered around Khaos’ wrists. Spitting at the ends, the tendrils snapped with energy as Khaos raised her fists. The door to the engine room squealed open and Aether stepped into the cargo hold.
“Romney,” Aether stepped in front of Khaos, clasping her fists in his hands. “Control yourself,” he breathed. “We are very close.” He leaned forward, pressing his lips against Khaos’ ear. Hannah strained to hear what was being said.
“He is telling her they will soon have an army,” Blaidd whispered to Hannah. “That she will not have to worry, that,” he paused. “That Khronos will not stop them now.”
Hannah turned to look at Blaidd. “How?”
Blaidd turned opened his hand to reveal a pale blue glow tracing the spiral on his palm. “Magic.” He closed his hand. “Here we go.”
Hannah followed Blaidd’s gaze, pressing her hands to her sides as Aether approached.
“Miss von Ense,” Aether smiled. “You have been a valuable service to your country,” Aether raised his voice as the passengers crowded around them. “Never have I had such an efficient assistant.” He looked up. “And now, you shall be rewarded as the first to witness the grand impediment machine. The first ever built on such a scale.” Aether raised a hand to the crowd. “Made possible by the generous assistance of Mr. Roland and Mr. Percy,” he gestured at the engine room door, “Waiting inside to invite all members of the order to experience the thrill of stepping into another plane.” Aether waited for the cheer of the crowd to settle.
“Herr Bremen?”
“Yes, Lady Chatterley?” Aether turned to a middle-aged woman at the front of the crowd.
“Are we all to be partnered with someone from the passage?” She blushed. “I wouldn’t want to be left out, Herr Bremen.”
“Of course not,” Aether stepped between Hannah and Blaidd. Taking the woman by the hand, he led her to the door. “I am sure Hannah will not take offence. It is only fitting that one of the order’s most generous contributors, be allowed to be one of the first to be partnered. Come,” he tucked the woman’s hand around Khaos’ arm. “Romney will show you the way.”
“You will follow, Fräulein von Ense.” Aether looked at Blaidd. “You can leave your wolf at the door.”
“I’ll be close though, eh? Herr Bremen,” Blaidd smoothed the hairs on the backs of his hands. “Wouldn’t want to miss anything.”
“By all means, Mr. Blaidd.” Turning away from the crowd, Aether gripped Hannah’s arm and guided her through the door after Khaos. “Mind your step.”
“I thought,” Hannah stepped over the lip of the door, “you needed my help?”
“I do,” Aether raised his voice over the sound of the engines.
“But not like this,” Hannah scuffed her heals on the metal grille of the walkway. “I don’t wish to be partnered,” she shouted. “I can be more use to you as an assistant. I can smooth things over with the port authorities when we dock. I can...”
“That won’t be necessary,” Aether let go of Hannah at the top of the ladder. “Look.”
Hannah grasped the railing and turned to look at the engine room. The propeller shafts glowed with spinning metal spheres, traversing the full length of each of The Regal Giant’s three propeller shafts. Teams of engineers inspecting the propellers pointed at the glowing spheres, the younger ones tracing the glyphs in the air as they spun past them. Privileged spectators chatted and pointed, turning to wave at Aether’s arrival, they clapped their hands.
“Luise Hanover’s machine was but a toy.” Aether waved at the crowd below.
“Ja,” Hannah gripped the railing. She turned at a tug on her arm.
“Do you see the inscriptions?”
“On the spheres?” Hannah looked in the direction Aether was pointing. “Ja, I see them.”
“They are more powerful than those of Miss Hanover. Khaos has a true mastery of the glyphs,” Aether grinned. He pointed at each of the propeller shafts in turn. “With three sets of coils, and with the increased speed of the engines, we can create a vortex wide enough for more than two demons at a time. Khaos’ khronoglyphs will ensure the passage stays open for longer.” Aether let go of Hannah’s arm. He took a step closer to the ladder. Looking down, he waved at Khaos and Lady Chatterley hanging on her arm. Aether turned back to Hannah. “Can you hear it? That high-pitched whine?”
“Ja,” Hannah frowned. She looked at the distance between Aether’s heels and the top of the ladder. “I can hear it.”
“It means,” he grinned, “that the vortex is beginning to form. The shadow vortex will come next and then...”
“And then,” Hannah gripped the railing with her right hand, bent her right knee up to her chest and kicked Aether in the sternum. Leaning forward, she watched as he dropped to the lower deck, landing on
the metal floor, his skull cracking with a heavy thud and a trickle of blue energy escaping from his scalp.
“No,” Khaos shoved Lady Chatterley aside and ran to Aether’s crumpled form. Picking up his hands, she screamed as the light faded from his fingers. “No.”
Hannah watched as Khaos lifted Aether’s hand to her lips.
“Did he fall?” Lady Chatterley shouted above the strident spin of the propellers. “I said,” she put a hand on Khaos’ shoulder.
Slapping her hand on top of Lady Chatterley’s, Khaos enveloped the woman’s hand and lower arm in a blue tendril pulsing from her fingers.
“What are you doing?” Lady Chatterley’s arm drooped. “Stop...”
The slow energy from Khaos fingers envelope the woman in her grasp. As Lady Chatterley slumped to the floor, Khaos looked up at Hannah.
“You must watch, Hannah von Ense,” Khaos sneered, her hair sparking at the tips with neon snaps. “You did this,” she nodded at Aether’s inert form. “And now I will do this.” Khaos stood, the tendril from her fingers snaked around Lady Chatterley, slowing her body until her chest stopped rising and her eyes stopped blinking.
Hannah watched as Khaos slowed the life from Lady Chatterley’s body. She moved back from the ladder, turning only as the whine of the vortex grew, forcing the engineers to their knees. She looked down as something snaked around her ankles. “No,” Hannah stumbled. Twisting onto her stomach, Hannah thrust her fingers through the grille and screamed, “Blaidd.”
Thudding onto the walkway, Blaidd stopped, his eyes flicking from the engineers holding their hands to their ears, Aether and Lady Chatterley lying still on the floor, and Khaos appearing at the top of the ladder, tendrils of blue light extending from her fingers to Hannah’s ankles.
“I can’t move my legs,” Hannah shouted. “Help me.”
Tracing his finger around the spiral on his left palm, Blaidd did the same with his right. Clenching his fists once, Blaidd flashed forward to the edge of the walkway, kicking at Khaos’ face as she climbed up. The demon fell.
“My legs,” Hannah shouted as she slipped toward the edge of the ladder, arresting Khaos’ fall as the tendrils tightened. Blaidd looked over the edge as Khaos swung beneath him. “Get them off me.”
Pulling his butterfly knife from his pocket, Blaidd flicked it open and gripped one of the tendrils in his left hand. “Ah,” Blaidd laughed.
“What is it?” Hannah glanced over her shoulder. “You can cut them, ja?”
“Well,” Blaidd let go of the tendril and turned his palm over. “Just a moment, eh?” He traced the spiral with his finger. “I need to top up.”
“Top up?” Hannah screamed as Khaos tugged at the tether of slow energy connecting them. “She is pulling me down.”
“Yes,” Blaidd flexed the fingers of his left hand tried again, his fingers slowing as he squeezed them tight. “And sapping my speed.” He sawed at the tendril, grinning as the knife grated on the metal beneath it. The energy wrapped around Hannah’s ankle faded.
“I still can’t move my feet,” Hannah pushed herself into a sitting position. “Blaidd?”
“Don’t worry, Miss,” Blaidd locked his arms in the railings either side of the ladder. Khaos leered over his shoulder, new tendrils, thicker, brighter, wrapped around Blaidd’s throat and knife hand. “Just a little setback, eh?” The knife fell from Blaidd’s limp hand. “Just get going, miss. Remember me, eh?”
“Ja,” Hannah shuffled away from Blaidd and the ladder, her cheeks paling at the look on Khaos face as the demon slowed Blaidd’s breathing with a thick coil of energy wrapped around his chest. “I will remember you.” Hannah tested her legs, arching her feet and flexing her toes as the feeling returned. She stood up, gripping the railing for support as she staggered backward to the door, her eyes fixed on Khaos.
“Where are you going, Hannah von Ense?” Khaos climbed the last few rungs of the ladder, crawling over Blaidd’s body as she reached the top. She flicked her wrists, snaking the coils of energy back into her fingers. “Look,” she flicked her eyes at the vortex spinning around the engine room. “See who comes.”
Hannah watched as demons crawled out of the funnel. Slithering over the lip in groups of threes and fours, they drifted over to the engineers, entering the bodies of the men and women through their eyes, noses, mouths and the pores of their skin.
“Fascinating,” Khaos paused on the walkway. “Don’t you think so?” She turned to Hannah, her fingers snapping with needles of energy, her eyes sparking blue menace as she glared at Hannah.
Hannah reached the door. Stumbling over the lip, she pushed past the passengers waiting in the cargo hold and made her way to the ladder.
“I will find you, Hannah von Ense,” Khaos called from the engine room door. “You will pay for what you have done.” She turned to the passengers. “The order of impedimenta rewards loyal servants,” Khaos pointed at Hannah, “and punishes traitors severely. Only time will tell when...” Khaos stumbled to her knees. “What?” She turned to look at the door.
Hannah felt the spinning of the propellers vibrating through the ladder diminish as she climbed. Looking back at the passengers in the hold, she frowned as they swayed in a strange dance, their movements slow and cumbersome. From within the sluggish crowd, Hannah spied Khaos, a rigid tendril of light in each hand, staggering to the door as if in the face of a storm.
“The ship is being slowed,” Hannah breathed. “I have to get off.” Hurrying up the ladder, Hannah reached the top, stepped out of the cargo hold, stumbling along the deck toward the bow of the ship. “Get out of the way,” Hannah yelled at an orderly pushing a trolley of refreshments toward her.
“Oi, watch it,” the orderly swerved out of Hannah’s way.
Careening off the bulkhead, Hannah stopped to catch her breath. She watched as the orderly leaned forward to inspect the wheels, pushing at the trolley to make it move.
“’Ere,” he turned to shake his fist at Hannah. “Look what you’ve done. I can’t hardly move it now, can I?”
“Run,” Hannah pushed herself off the wall. “Run to the bow. Get off the ship.”
“What are you on about?” Lifting his right foot, the orderly took a step toward Hannah. Setting his foot down on the deck, he paused and tugged at his left leg with both hands. “’Ere,” he called after Hannah. “What have you done?”
Hannah ran along the deck. At the entrance to observation lounge, she avoided the passengers crowding the door, choosing instead to crash through the stencilled glass window instead. Showering splinters over the carpet and passengers, Hannah ignored the curses and arms reaching out to stop her. She paused at the door to the observation deck. Ripping the life ring from the wall, Hannah stepped onto the deck. She ran to the starboard side.
“Wallendorf Walkers,” Hannah looked at the docks, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand.
“Are you all right, Miss?”
Hannah turned to look at a waiter approaching with a tray of drinks. Clambering onto the railing, Hannah swung her legs over the side.
“Hey, Miss,” the waiter tossed the tray of drinks onto the deck. Ignoring the crash of glasses and the spinning of the metal tray, he rushed forward, his hand outstretched. “Don’t jump, Miss.”
Tossing the life ring into the sea below her, Hannah turned to look at the waiter. “Get off the ship.” Hannah jumped.
҉
The sun caught the body of The Voskhod, shining off the metal plates, warming the Russians’ cheeks with a coppery glow. Oksana wiped the windows with a rag, tutting at the roll of dice cackling across the surface of the upturned crate as Lena, one eye on Stepan, challenged the Russian soldiers. With each new roll, the soldiers groaned and reached into their pockets. Lena’s fingertips drummed the wooden surface as she pulled her winnings, cigarettes, coins and jewellery, into a wool cap. Folding her cap inside the straps of her bandolier, Lena bowed to the Russians and made her way back to the locomotive. A handful of coins in one
hand, she whistled at Oksana, flicking a coin onto the metal running board running the length of the locomotive.
“I don’t want your contraband,” Oksana rubbed at a stubborn corner of grime.
“Contraband,” Lena laughed. “I won this.”
“It is not ladylike.”
“I have never pretended to be a lady,” Lena climbed up onto the locomotive.
“We can agree on that.”
“What do you think they are talking about?” Lena tugged at Oksana’s elbow.
Stuffing the rag inside the leather apron at her waist, Oksana turned and leaned against the locomotive beside Lena. She eyed the cigarette poking out of Lena’s cap, clasped her fingers together and stared in the direction of Stepan and Bryullov.
Pulling the cigarette out of her cap with her finger and thumb, Lena grinned. She held it under Oksana’s nose. “Perhaps we can agree on this, too?” Oksana flicked her eyes at the yellow paper roll of tobacco. “Look,” Lena fished a second cigarette from her cap. “I will smoke one too. We can pretend we are comrades?”
“Pretend? Da, we can do that,” Oksana took the cigarette and placed it between her lips. Reaching into her apron she pulled out a box of matches. “Just the one, now,” she struck the match.
“Of course,” Lena leaned in as Oksana lit first her own and then Lena’s cigarette. Exhaling a stream of smoke, Lena picked at a flake of tobacco between her teeth. She pointed at the two men. “Our Kapitan doesn’t look very happy.”
“Stepan?” Oksana flicked ash from her cigarette. “No,” she paused. “He looks angry.”
“Very angry,” Lena flicked her cigarette onto the tracks. Glancing at the soldiers, she slipped the fingers of her left hand around the grip of her pistol. Pressing her right hand upon Oksana’s arm she whispered, “It will be safer inside the cab.”
Oksana smoked as the two men approached, the crunch of gravel beneath their feet echoing beneath the locomotive. “Da,” Oksana finished her cigarette. She flicked it onto the tracks at the sound of Stepan’s voice.