The Iron Wyrm Affair

by Lilith Saintcrow

  “Ah. Well. Miss Bannon, allow me to collect myself for a moment. Then I shall answer your questions. Is there tea?”

  “Of course. Shall I fetch you some?”

  Well, she is remarkably calm, under the circumstances. “With lemon, please.”

  The ice arrived in a well-scalded and proof-charmed cloth, and between that and a cuppa he was soon sitting upright, blinking in the rainy failing light. He did not care to know how he had been transported to Miss Bannon’s house, other than to be grateful at the occurrence. The splitting pain of strained faculties inside his skull receded bit by bit.

  Mikal hovered at Miss Bannon’s shoulder as she sipped her own tea, thoughtfully, her little finger raised just so. The Shield’s face was a thundercloud, and Clare suspected the reason was the other Shield, a dark-haired man who leaned almost somnolent at the mantel. The mystery of where Miss Bannon had acquired him could wait, Clare decided as his temples throbbed.

  Ludovico Valentinelli, on the far side of the fireplace, was engaged upon cleaning his fingernails with another of his many knives, and glancing curiously at the new Shield. Sig was at the tea table, munching happily. Every so often the Neapolitan would drift to the table and help himself. It was a comfort to see their appetites undiminished, even if they were still soot-stained and faintly wild-eyed.

  “Now,” Clare said, finally, when he was certain his voice would remain steady. “It is much worse than either of us feared, Miss Bannon. Those things, the mechanisterum homunculi, for lack of a better term; Sig would merely call them mecha, dear boy that he is – do not run on Alterative sorcery. They can be run directly through the smaller logic engines inside their chest cavities. You will no doubt have noticed the glow at my chest while—”

  “Yes. Proceed.” One of her hatpins, he saw, had broken. He wondered if she had found the pieces; decided not to think on it too deeply lest overstress fuse his brain into uselessness.

  “They must be run by a mentath. My current state is the cost of handling such an engine without preparation. The equations are… very difficult. But that is not what concerns us.” He winced, took another swallow of tea. “Some toast, perhaps?”

  “Of course. Mikal, please fetch him a plate.” Visibly calmer, Miss Bannon settled on the cushioned stool. Her skirts were arranged very prettily, Clare noticed.

  It was the first time one of these episodes had not ended with her in tatters, he reflected. Doubtless she was glad.

  He brought his attention back to the matter at hand. “The larger – the master logic engine, you see, would not be in that warehouse. It is being kept safe elsewhere. The master engine will be the transmitter. Those – the mechanicals you saw – are all receivers, with limited capability of being run directly. With a large enough transmitting engine, especially handling the sub-equations in a useful fashion, which is possible with enough power supplied through the core, the mentath wired to the transmitting engine will have control of an army.”

  Silence.

  Miss Bannon had gone quite white. She stared not at him but through him, her gaze disconcertingly direct and remote at the same time.

  “An army.” Very thoughtful, and very soft. She took another sip of tea. “One that does not need food, or rest. One that sorcery does not touch.”

  “The field generated by the logic engines –”

  “– rather makes it difficult for sorcery to penetrate. Yes, Mr Clare. And Mr Throckmorton alive.” She continued, pedantically, after a long pause. “I wonder whose corpse was at Grace Street. And what Throckmorton was doing there with Devon.”

  “Standing guard, perhaps? Who would look for a mentath in the Shadow?” He suppressed a shudder at the thought. “I am not quite myself at the moment, Miss Bannon. Pray do not question me too much; it may overtax my faculties and I shall become a brain-melted embarrassment.”

  A fleeting, half-guilty smile greeted his sally. Mikal appeared, bearing a plate of provender. “Prima?”

  “Hm?” She glanced up as Clare started gratefully on his toast.

  “I have an idea.”

  “Yes?”

  “I think it would be most instructive to learn the recent movements of a dead Master Sorcerer.” The Shield straightened, folding his arms. “One who was running errands for Lord Sellwyth.”

  Sellwyth? Yes, the dead Prime. Clare winced again. Even such a simple act of memory strained the meat inside his skull most alarmingly.

  “Quite.” She took another sip of tea. She was still distressingly pale. “I wonder if anyone else has seen Mr Devon of late? Childe said a fortnight or so ago. The last time I saw him was at Tomlinson’s. Where he had bungled the traces rather neatly, it now appears.” She closed her eyes, gathering herself. When she reopened them, her gaze was very direct – and very, very cold. “Still, a corpse to mislead investigation is not difficult to procure, and the remains at Grace Street were so badly burnt… If Throckmorton is alive…”

  Silence filled the room. Clare hoped she did not require his faculties to see her way through the tangle. He crunched on his toast, relishing the butter and the thick bread.

  “I am very interested in Hugh Devon’s movements,” Miss Bannon continued. “However, following him is a waste of time, since he is dead. If Throckmorton is alive—”

  “Cedric Grayson’s signature is on the papers you gave me, Miss Bannon. You must not be as familiar with his hand as I am.” Clare’s attention snagged on a memory, and a braying laugh surprised him. “The sherry was poisoned. How typical.”

  “Sherry?”

  That was why it reeked as it did. It was cheap, yes, but also adulterated. “When we visited the Chancellor. At the time I thought the sherry dreadfully cheap, but Cedric’s aesthetics are so bad—”

  “Poison. I see. A slow-acting one, no doubt, meant to preserve some parts of you.”

  “Preserve?”

  “The other unregistered mentaths were missing their brains and spinal cords. I rather thought it had something to do with a mad Alterations sorcerer.”

  “Oh.” Clare shuddered. No wonder she had reserved that information. It changed the entire complexion of the affair, but his faculties were too aching and strained to make use of the revelation.

  “And the trap in Bedlam,” Miss Bannon continued daintily, “was meant to take care of me, possibly while I was occupied in ministering to you. Rather tidy. Which brings us to another interesting question.”

  As long as you do not expect me to answer said query, dear God. “Which is?”

  “Where is Lord Sellwyn? If Throckmorton is alive, I find it hard to believe he is truly deceased.”

  Indeed. “Ah. Well. I cannot help you.”

  “No need.” She sipped again, delicately, and he had the sudden fancy that there were very few places Lord Sellwyn would be able to hide once Miss Bannon took a serious interest in finding him. “Tell me, Mr Clare, how long will it take your faculties to recover?”

  He cogitated upon this, carefully, wincing. “A few hours, and one of your most excellent dinners, should see me right as rain, Miss Bannon.”

  “Very well. Concern yourself with restoring said faculties, sir, and I shall speak with you after dinner.” She opened her eyes and rose, waving at him abstractedly as he moved as if to rise as well. “No, no, do stay seated. You have done very well, Mr Clare. Very well indeed. After dinner, then.”

  He found his mouth was dry. “Certainly. But Miss Bannon?”

  She was already halfway to the door, her teacup handed to Mikal and her stride lengthening, skirts snapping. “Yes?”

  “The next time you use me as bait, madam, have the goodness to inform me. I do not mind being dangled on a hook. As a matter of fact, I derive a certain enjoyment from it. But I would rather not endanger my friends.”

  She paused. “You were not bait, Mr Clare. You were more of a dach’s-hund, meant to flush the prey.”

  “Nevertheless.”

  A single, queenly nod. Did she unknowingly copy that movement fr
om Victrix? Yet another question that could wait until his head ceased its abominable pounding.

  “Yes, Mr Clare. You have earned as much. My apologies.” And with that, she swept out through the door the new Shield held for her.

  The door closed, leaving him with the assassin and Sigmund. Who crunched on something from his plate, licked his fingers, and belched contentedly.

  “What a woman,” he said, dreamily. “Ein Eis Madchen. Archibald, mein Herr, I believe I am in love.”

  The Neapolitan, upon hearing this, laughed fit to choke. Clare simply clasped the water-proofed ice cloth to his head and sighed.

  Dinner, though superb, was a somewhat hurried affair.

  Miss Bannon, appearing in black silk and even more fantastic jewellery, waited until the vegetable course. “I shall deal with Lord Sellwyth, Grayson, and Throckmorton. You, Mr Clare, shall deal with finding and – should it become necessary – destroying the larger logic engine.”

  “Splendid.” He dabbed his lips with his napkin. Beside him, Valentinelli had dispensed with rudeness for once, and was partaking with exquisite manners. Across from him, Mikal and the new Shield – Eli – set to with a will. On the Neapolitan’s other side, Sigmund expressed his admiration for the excellence of the dinner in mumbled German. He seemed supremely unconcerned with any larger questions, such as what his landlady and his apprentice would think of his disappearance and the state of his workshop. He had already dashed off a note for them penny-post, and then put them from his capacious mind, which was already busy worrying at other problems. “How do you propose I do so? I have my ideas, of course –”

  “– but you would like to know if I questioned a dead sorcerer’s shade, and can shed any light on the situation. I did, Mr Clare, and I can.”

  Clare noted that the new Shield turned pale and stared at his plate, before shaking his head slightly and renewing his interest in his food. Interesting. It was a pleasure to deduce again, without the inside of his skull feeling as if acid had been poured through it. The equations had nearly cracked him, the small logic engine cramming force through his capabilities until his head was a swollen pumpkin ready to burst. He had not felt so skull-tender since his Examination.

  The new Shield was a Liverpool boy, dark-haired and not very comfortable in his high-collared coat that almost matched Mikal’s. His boots were more impractical than Mikal’s – or for that matter, the sorceress’s – and Clare thought it likely Miss Bannon had not acquired his services as part of a well-laid plan. Another refugee, perhaps, to add to her household of cast-offs?

  Or did Miss Bannon think the dangers of the situation finally required another Shield? Why not more than one, then?

  The implications of that question were extraordinarily troubling. Just like the implications of the harvesting of other mentaths’ nervous organs.

  He brought his attention back to the matter at hand. Sometimes, after a violent shock, a mentath’s mind wandered down logical byways, taking every route but the one most direct. “Please do.”

  “My method of procuring the information—”

  “Does not trouble me at all, Miss Bannon. I believe I am past being troubled, at least for the next fortnight. After that, we shall see.” His digestion, at least, was sound. It was a small mercy. “Nothing you could tell me would discommode me more than this afternoon’s adventure.”

  Her pained half-smile told him she rather doubted it, but was too polite to say as much. “Very well. Mr Devon’s shade, when pressed, informed me that the conspiracy is very near fruition. It appears a single thing is lacking – a shipment of something from Prussia.”

  “Prussian capacitors, most likely.” Clare nodded. “Especially if they intend to have a single mentath run the transmitting engine; each one will help with the subsidiary equations. I am not so sure what the nervous organs are for, but no doubt they have some function. The question of just which mentath they have to run the damn thing—”

  “Is irrelevant at the moment. The Prussian things were delayed due to weather; they are to arrive in Dover tomorrow morning.” Miss Bannon was pale again. “You and your companions shall intercept this shipment and do whatever possible to delay and disrupt the part of the conspiracy that hinges on them.”

  “And you will be occupied with?” Though he already knew, he found he wished to hear her say it. She was, he reflected, a most unusual woman, and it was rather nice to converse with someone who did not require intellectual coddling.

  Someone who could think.

  “It is high time Lord Grayson answered some questions.” Level and chill, her gaze focused on the graceful silver epergne. The table’s gryphon legs writhed, uneasily, but the snow-white tablecloth was flat and straight. The cadaverous Mr Finch, without asking, brought a decanter and a small glass to Miss Bannon’s place; without looking, she accepted the glass and tossed its contents far down her throat with only a small ladylike grimace afterward. “Thank you, Mr Finch. Excuse me, gentlemen, but I require some bolstering. This is an unpleasant business.”

  “I agree.” Clare found himself reaching for his wine glass. I rather envy her the rum. But it would dull his faculties, even as it afforded him some relief. A fraction of coja might help, but he could not take that at table. Later, then. “There is something that troubles me, Miss Bannon.”

  A slight lift of an eyebrow. “And what is that?”

  “This is no ordinary conspiracy. What could these persons wish to accomplish with an army, even one so formidable as this? And where has the money to fund such a venture arrived from? This is most remarkable. I am very curious.”

  The rum seemed to make no impression on her. “There are things it is best for you not to know, Mr Clare. I am sorry.”

  “Ah. Well.” He sipped at his wine. “I work best when I am informed, Miss Bannon. It is very unlikely that whoever wishes to unseat Britannia’s current incarnation has merely one army or plan at their disposal. Even if that army is one sorcery will not touch.”

  The table rattled slightly. Even Sigmund looked up, his chewing halted for a moment.

  Miss Bannon’s childlike face turned even more set. Twin sparks of crimson flashed in her pupils for a few moments, then vanished. “We are not dealing with merely one conspiracy, Mr Clare. We are dealing with an unholy alliance of competing interests, none of whom are being exactly honest with each other. There is at least one party who wishes the destruction of Britannia Herself, one who possibly only wishes the damage of Her current incarnation to make said incarnation amenable to coercion, and a third who wishes to sow as much confusion and chaos as possible in order to impair the Empire in any way they may.” Her long jet earrings swung even though she was motionless, and the large black gem on a silver choker about her slim throat flashed with a single white-hot charter symbol for a moment. Her curls stirred, on a slow cool breeze that came from nowhere and ruffled along Clare’s own face. “I will allow none of this, and I will conclude this matter to my satisfaction and in the manner I deem best.”

  The silence was immense. Every gaze in the room had fastened on her. Ludovico Valentinelli seemed thoughtful, his pocked face open and interested. The Bavarian was still unchewing, his eyes wide like a frightened child’s. The new Shield had turned cheesy-pale and laid his fork down. Mikal, on the other hand, simply watched her, and his expression was as unguarded as Clare had ever seen it.

  I wonder if she knows what he feels. I wonder if he does.

  Clare leaned back in his chair. He tented his fingers under his long sensitive nose and studied Miss Bannon’s immobility. Finally he had marshalled his thoughts sufficiently to speak. Be very careful here, Archie old man.

  “Miss Bannon. According to what I have seen so far, the Queen trusts you implicitly. This trust is well placed. You are neither stupid nor irresponsible, and you are, I daresay, one of the finest of Britannia’s subjects. Despite the fact that you have suspected me and told me virtually nothing of the contours of this conspiracy, I find that I trust you
implicitly as well. I am” – he untangled his fingers, lifted his wineglass – “your servant, madam. I shall do my very best to discharge the duty laid upon me, by God and Her Majesty. Now, do you view the situation as dire enough for us to pass over the sweets, or shall we partake, as this may be the last dinner some of us are fortunate enough to consume?”

  Miss Bannon’s mouth compressed itself into a thin line, and for a moment he was certain he had said exactly the wrong thing. People were so bloody difficult, after all, and she was a woman – they were noted for irrationality, never mind that this sorceress was one of the least irrational creatures he had ever known the pleasure of meeting.

  But her mouth relaxed, and a smile like sunrise played over her face. “I believe the situation is dire enough on my account but not so dire on yours, so you and your companions will have to do justice to the sweets for me. I wish to see Lord Grayson as close to Tideturn as possible. Thank you, gentlemen.”

  She rose, still smiling, and the men leapt to their feet as one. She swept from the dining room, and the Shields hurried in her wake.

  The Neapolitan breathed a curse. “Last time la strega look like that…” He lowered himself back into his chair as Mr Finch reappeared with two footmen bearing the sweets. The butler did not seem at all distressed or surprised to find his mistress had quit the table.

  “What happened, the last time Miss Bannon looked like that?” Clare enquired.

  Valentinelli allowed the scarred footman to clear his place. “Oh, nothing. Just Ludovico almost hanged, and il sorcieri laughing in the dark. La strega, the bitch, she save Ludo’s life.” A single shrug. “Some day I forgive her. But not today.”

  “Ah.” Clare filed this away. Valentinelli’s drawer in his mental bureau was almost as interesting as Miss Bannon’s, by now.

  But not quite. He could still feel her gloved fingers on his hand, trembling. And three separate interlocking interests making this conspiracy an even more troubling – and fascinating – puzzle.

  Sig looked mournful. “We finish dinner, ja?”