Of Tinkers and Technomancers

by Katherine McIntyre

  Silas paused, catching the chilly drift from the seams of the door. Coolness hinted at a basement. He twisted the knob to open the door, able to tell by the inky darkness and the mildew that the steps led to the exact destination he’d thought. His skin prickled with paranoia, but Silas gripped the railing with one hand and his pistol with his other while he descended.

  Even though he didn’t entertain fears of the dark, he found it difficult to dissuade his overactive imagination while he crept down the stairs, trying to make as little sound as possible. Blackness curled around him, an embrace he wanted to shake. A dry rasp of a cough echoed through the room, causing him to freeze in place. His nails dug into the soft wood of the railing. When no footsteps rustled, Silas continued down, one step at a time.

  The glow of the aether tube attached to his pistol cast a soft, greenish sheen on the ground, enough to see the step before him even if little else.

  “Blair, quit rotting about,” a hoarse, female voice called out. “If you’re here to give more love taps, then look slippery about it.” Even though he hadn’t seen Ellie Whitfield in quite a few years, the belligerence was a trait both Whitfield women shared. The thought of Theo set his heart pounding faster. Down here, he couldn’t help her if Blair’s men found her out.

  Silas slipped his pistol into his holster and drew his stylus, switching on the much stronger light at the end. The beams sliced through the darkened basement, the dampness in the air clinging to his skin as Silas reached the end of the stairwell. A steady drip, drip, drip came from the back corners, echoing throughout the wide space. The ground beneath him was little more than well-packed earth, and as Silas stepped forward, he almost tripped over a splintered crate left overturned and abandoned.

  He swung the light on the end of his stylus around, searching for the source of the voice. In the far corner came more rustling and another grunt. When he flashed the beam in that direction, Silas winced.

  Ellie Whitfield was there, all right, but the past few days had not been kind. The woman lay bound in the corner, her wild curls splayed over her face and her eyes glittering with rage. On top of the dirt and grime she’d accumulated, more than a couple of bruises marred her arms and face while dried blood marked her temple. Stains soaked into her shirt, the brownish red of more blood, enough that Silas’ insides boiled before he’d taken two steps forward.

  “Ellie, I’m here to help,” Silas said, fairly sure by the way she squinted at him that her eyes hadn’t adjusted. “Your sister and I came to an agreement—I get my diamond core back, and I would help retrieve you.”

  “Kylock?” Her incredulous tone rang around the room.

  Silas crouched by her, flipped his stylus to the opposite end, and with the sharp side he began sawing at the bonds restraining her legs. “Are you okay? Any broken bones?” Even though the diamond core had been his goal from the beginning, his priorities had ended up shifting along the way. All that mattered now was getting Ellie out and returning to Theo’s side.

  She shook her head. “Just got a bit tumbled about. Starving as anything, too. So you know, your diamond core isn’t here.”

  “Figures,” he murmured. “Where might it be?”

  Ellie shook her head, her chin thrust forward. “The only person I’m telling is my sister. You could be another attempt to trick the information out of me, just to go running back to Blair. I’m not falling for it.”

  Silas nodded while the first cord snapped, and he released her ankles. “That I can accept. We’ve got to focus on getting the blazes out of here before Blair and his boys discover your sister out there.”

  If Ellie had been protecting the diamond core all this while, that meant she still held on to it, and it wasn’t here. Ellie winced as she rotated her ankles and stretched her legs with a groan. Silas maneuvered to where her wrists were bound together and began working on the cord.

  Ellie cocked an eyebrow. “I can say with assuredness, I never expected the man I stole from to be my rescuer.”

  Silas smirked. “Blame your sister. She’s quite persistent.”

  Ellie grinned, a wicked spark in her eyes despite the obvious trials she’d been through. Both of the Whitfield girls had resilience in spades. As the cords fell away, Ellie rotated her wrists, flexing her joints, which must have frozen from disuse. The mottled bruises marring her skin grew so much clearer under the light of his stylus and struck the match to Silas’ temper. When Theo caught sight of her sister, Blair would be lucky if he survived.

  “Come on now,” he said, extending a hand. “Let’s get you out of here.”

  She slipped her hand in his and nodded. “I’ve seen quite enough of Blair’s terrible taste in interior design.”

  He tugged her forward, bringing her arm around his shoulders to offer support. Given that Ellie had spent so much time bound up, it would take a spell before circulation returned to her limbs. And first on the agenda was tackling those steps.

  “What’s the best way out of here?” he asked while they lumbered toward the stairwell. With his free hand, he grabbed a brass ball that dangled from his holster. If all else failed, he had this measure of protection. Wielding a pistol was out of the question while he helped Ellie. Without the steady light of the stylus, he bumped his shins on any available hard surface as he navigated his way to the stairwell.

  “There’s a back door, a side exit and the front—however, when you’re looking for a quick and easy escape, I’d bet my shillings on a first-floor window.” Ellie fumbled on her feet, almost slipping from his grasp.

  Silas kept a firm grip on her as he took the lead up the steps, nearly dragging her along with him. Onward they continued, one step at a time, while he readjusted her weight every time she faltered—which was often.

  His heart pounded faster the closer they got to the door. Out there, Theo was risking herself. Silas couldn’t quash the worry he’d step out to find the clockwork dolls scattered in parts across the lawn and Theo lying in a pool of her own blood. His throat tightened when he pushed forward, faster. The thought of her being gone from his life right as they’d begun to explore the spark between them clawed at his chest. He needed to reach her before those fears became true.

  Once they made it to the door, Silas pressed his ear to the surface and listened. Most of the shouts came from outside, although he caught the pounding of footsteps from the room he’d entered by—which meant Blair must’ve been discovered. He pushed the door open a crack and peered down the corridor. Even though the sound of voices came from the far right, the hallway was clear.

  “Go to the left,” Ellie whispered, trying and failing to push her foot forward and guide them. Her eyes sparked with her fury, but she just gritted her teeth. “There’s a room they use for storage with a window we can climb out of.”

  Silas nodded and stepped forward, grappling with Ellie as he went. She didn’t weigh much, but the resistance she provided by trying to push through on her own set them back several paces. Quite a few times, he was sorely tempted to knock her out and carry her the rest of the way.

  In the middle of the hall, Ellie jerked to a stop and tilted her head to the left. “That’s the room.”

  Silas grabbed the knob, his gaze darting to the end of the hall where the orange glow and deep voices sent shivers down his spine. Ellie reached past him to push the door open with a groan before staggering inside. She stumbled forward, ready to bite the hardwood, but instead she crashed into one of the dozens of crates stacked in this room. They’d found where Blair hid his fenced goods.

  “Wait there,” he said to Ellie, who slumped over the crate she’d just tangled with. Ellie shot him a glare but to his immense surprise didn’t argue.

  Moonbeams spilled in through the window, creating silvery patterns along the surface of the crates. Silas leaned down and tested a couple of the pine boxes before finding a lighter one and carrying it over to the window. He fiddled with the latch before sliding the glass pane up and out of the way, all within seconds. The
cool air skated across his skin, and the bark of gunfire from the backyard rattled his nerves.

  “Let’s go get your sister,” he murmured, his heart in a vise.

  His grip tightened on the window frame in front of him, and he wished he could catch a proper glimpse of the backyard or Theo to know she was okay. That she’d survived. Yet as the shouts and the rattle of volleys continued, all Silas knew was that outside lay a landscape filled with bullets, Blair’s boys and the potential for devastation.

  Chapter Eleven

  The field swayed before Theo’s eyes. In not only controlling three of the clockwork dolls but also attacking with the automatons, she’d expended more energy than she’d realized. Theo gritted her teeth as she leaned against the railing out of sight, pushing the middle automaton to smash with his spade at the first lurker. Between the angry yells from Blair’s men and the clank of the clockwork dolls, she strained to hear anything from inside the house.

  Not like I can think of much else. Her sister might be somewhere inside, and Silas had entered the building to risk his life and livelihood. For her. She might pretend he was doing it for nobility or the diamond core, but the tender way he’d looked at her and the thrill of his kiss begged otherwise.

  While her clockwork automatons engaged three of the men, five in total had burst onto the scene, leaving two unattended. And those men weren’t remaining idle. Theo bit her lip. As much as she wasn’t a ruthless killer, she’d faced enough situations where she either slipped a knife or ended up in a gutter. She preferred to remain among the living.

  Her throat dried when one of the men glanced in her direction. Had he caught sight of her? Theo lifted her pistol and swayed from the intense drain on her resources. She couldn’t break focus enough to aim well, but Theo could shoot her Derringer in her sleep. The moment she fired her pistol, her position would be sold and any hopes of hiding gone with the breeze. It would be her against five of Blair’s men—she wouldn’t stand a chance.

  Her heart thumped in her ears as she remained silent, wishing she could become one with the shadows. The man took a couple more steps in her direction, scanning around the yard as he searched. Steam swirled around like low fog throughout the area, a result of all the magic she outpoured. Theo swallowed, her throat too dry in the wake of the nerves buzzing through her. Her finger itched on the trigger, but she fought to stay upright while the conductive ring nearly burned her skin from the amount of energy she wielded.

  On an average day, she merely dipped into the well of her abilities, small conduit checks or quick reroutes on machinery begging to function. This massive push had already drained her, but even now she fought to keep the automatons slashing away at the men in front of them. Their motions were automatic even as bullets dented the hulls of the torsos or clipped at their arms.

  One of the clockwork dolls lost half a leg under the fire, the automaton tilting to its side but continuing to push forward. Theo wouldn’t be able to keep up the distraction for much longer. Her gaze slid to the side door Silas had disappeared behind. Even as she homed in on it, the thing didn’t budge, not even offering one glimpse of him or her sister.

  A rustle from yards away snared her attention.

  One of Blair’s boys wandered closer, kicking a clod of dirt while he approached. He scanned all around him, which meant she hadn’t given away her hiding spot yet, but with every step closer, it was only a matter of time. Sweat trickled down her back despite the breeze ruffling the tendrils of patchy grass throughout the backyard.

  Each dent damaging the automatons caused another disruption in the flow of her magic, forcing her to reroute. As if she hadn’t outpoured enough energy, this required focus she didn’t have and effort she didn’t dare exert. At the end of the day, if she passed out from pushing herself too fast, the automatons would seize up and stop functioning anyway.

  She mouthed a curse, gritted her teeth and released the tether on the teetering automaton. The men descended on it like wolves on a fresh kill. Theo winced at the way they tore the beauty to pieces. All the hours of work and careful time spent on Silas’ part lay desecrated within minutes.

  Still, the side door remained shut. No sign of Silas or her sister, and she was running out of time and distractions.

  Theo gripped the railing tight with one hand, the other clutched around her pistol. She took aim at the lurker who came ever closer in his search for the puppeteer. He swiped at the wisps of steam floating past him as he strode forward. The moment she caught a glint of recognition in his eyes, she’d pull the trigger.

  Even her soft breaths sounded too harsh in her ears, too ragged and loud enough to draw attention. Her shirt gummed to her chest from the pool of sweat she’d accumulated after over-exerting herself. As much as she needed to keep the attention away from Silas, she couldn’t afford to keep hold of the automatons any longer. In minutes, she’d drain dry and pass out.

  Theo let go of another tether, causing the clockwork maid to grind to a halt, then let go of the other one. With the automatons no longer providing resistance, more of the men started prowling the backyards for the source of the change.

  Shouts came from inside the house, drawing the men’s attention.

  Fear stole her breath away. A clamor inside meant discovery. Silas and Ellie wouldn’t stand a chance at escape. While two of the guys departed, three roamed nearby so she couldn’t make a break for the house until they were distracted.

  The lurker prowled far too close for comfort, causing her breath to catch in her throat as she kept her pistol aimed.

  He paused, his gaze swinging her way and pinning her down. His mouth opened as if to alert his friends. Theo needed to silence him at once.

  Before she could pull the trigger, the man sprouted a bullet from the forehead, and crimson sprayed.

  He dropped like a stone.

  Theo swung in the direction of the shot, leaning on the railing to keep her stable. There, between the houses, Silas and Ellie lumbered down the narrow knoll. Silas looped his arm around Ellie while he kept her upright, but his modified pistol was still raised in her sister’s hand.

  Even as her heart soared at the sight of them, the bellow of the gun had drawn the attention of the remaining two men.

  Theo shifted her aim and fired for their knees, unloading bullets at a quick, if not sloppy pace. Chunks of dirt flew as bullets burrowed into the ground, but the distraction worked, dragging their attention away from Silas and Ellie. Her legs wobbled when she stepped away from the railing, angling to get a better vantage point.

  Before the men lifted their pistols, a brass ball sailed through the air in their direction.

  Theo had seen one once before. She knew what would follow.

  Silas yanked Ellie forward and together they raced faster and faster across the backyard, hurtling in her direction. Theo slid her pistol into her holster and pushed off to try to place as much distance as possible between herself and the blast. The moment the brass ball landed, those men wouldn’t be coming after them any longer.

  Heat and sound boomed with the explosion, and pebbles shot past her, the sharp edges slicing her shirt. Silas and Ellie stumbled forward to catch up with her, keeping a fast pace even though Ellie’s ankles might give out. Theo slowed to step in line with them, grabbing her sister’s free arm and tugging it around her shoulder. Despite the way she could barely stand straight herself, the weight was so familiar and comfortable that her eyes heated from relief.

  Smoke from the aether bomb’s blast billowed around in trickles, and more shouts continued from inside the house, but Silas, Theo and Ellie simply ran. They put in as much distance as possible across backyards she’d crept through earlier. Blair and his boys would be furious, and she had no doubt he would seek retribution. However, Theo had gotten her sister back. Ellie was safe, and whatever they needed to deal with down the road, they would deal with it together.

  As they ran, Theo cast a glance over at Silas, and their gazes met. She hadn’t forgotten w
ho had retrieved her sister—who’d sacrificed his automatons, his livelihood and put his own life on the line to make sure her sister was returned. Whatever the future held and wherever their paths might go, without a doubt, he’d left a brand on her soul that couldn’t be erased.

  Chapter Twelve

  Silas thought he knew the meaning of the word tired. However, this day was determined to teach him new depths. Even though his chest thundered in protest, even though his calves tightened with cramps and even though his mouth had forgotten the relief of water, he continued to race through the streets of Islington with the Whitfield sisters. The sight of them running by his side took him back to younger years—except he’d spent far less time crouched behind a workbench in those days.

  Still, the sparkle in Theo’s eyes and the visible relief melting her features when he’d appeared with Ellie had made this entire endeavor worth it. The woman had worked her way into his psyche in such a short time and had become far more than a fond memory from his earlier years.

  Their harsh breaths echoed in the air of the late night as they all slowed their pace. Ellie tugged her arms from the two of them to try to walk on her own, but she wobbled on her feet. Based on the pinch of her cheeks and her unsteadiness, they hadn’t fed her while they’d kept her tied like an animal. He thanked everything that Theo hadn’t been the one to discover her sister in the basement.

  Blair and his boys would be far too concerned with the wreckage of their house to come chasing after him and the Whitfields, at least for the time being.

  Before Ellie got several feet ahead, Theo slipped an arm around her to pull her close.

  Ellie shot her a glare. “I’m not an invalid just because I was tied up for a spell.”

  Theo thrust her chin forward, a stubborn look sparking her eyes again. “Then why don’t you hold me up? All the effort it took to get you back has me exhausted.”