City of Light & Steam

by Lexi Ostrow

  He heard his sister mumble something under her breath, but when she turned the corner, she was holding the box in hand.

  He smirked. “I wasn’t certain you would be able to carry that so efficiently.”

  “Bugger off,” Stella bumped her hip into his body as she pushed past him and didn’t bother to tarry waiting for him at the door. The current box was being held low, but he was impressed she could carry something so effortlessly when it weighed near as many stones as she.

  “Stella, my chambers as Guild Master.”

  Her chuckle reached all the way back to him as he scurried around the corner after her. If he were going to continue to act the part, he needed to act as such in full until such a time arose he could tell Raven the truth.

  His sister stood, seemingly frozen, in front of Christopher’s work quarters. When he stepped up beside her, he saw the sadness etched on her face, the tear threatening to fall from her right eye. They had not yet officially lain their cousin to rest. Thus they had not adequately grieved his death.

  Setting the volt box at his feet, he twisted the knob and let the door swing inward.

  “Bloody hell.”

  “Pleasure to see you once more as well, Christopher.” Raven sat at his cousin’s desk, magnifier strapped on her head, and pulled down over one eye. She did not even so much as look over her shoulder at him.

  “What are you doing here?” The words came out stuttered.

  “I thought about your request. I do not feel it appropriate, now that I am entirely well once more, to conduct business in your quarters. We have let our mutual interests lead us down the wrong path, let us work here where we cannot be distracted.”

  “But what are you doing here?” He hadn’t taken his eyes off her and was dumbfounded at how she came to be at Christopher’s office when his entire guild knew to act as if he were Christopher. Which certainly would have meant they’d not send her to a chamber with a painted portrait of him on the wall. Part of him comprehended Raven had taken decisions into her own hands and come, but he was too concerned what she might have learned upon gaining entry to his cousin’s office.

  “If you mean in this rather grand chamber instead of the dinky little area you showed me the first time, then you can thank a member of your scullery staff.” Raven finally spun around in the chair, lifting the glass from her eye and situating it up over her head. “I sought you out as my devices were rather easy to grab.” She motioned toward him and his sister. “And much smaller by the looks of things.” Rising, she pulled an oil-stained work glove from her hand. “My apologies, if you were so close with the Guild Master as to be bringing the supplies, I assume you know of me. Raven Nightingale, Guild Master of the Steam Guild.”

  Stella didn’t miss a step. “Stella Abbott, this one’s sister.”

  The color drained from his face, and he was damn sure he let out a sister. “What she means to say is she acts as the sister I never had. I was so unfortunate to be born without kin, but my cousins are plentiful, and Stella has always been very close.”

  Raven said nothing, merely smiled, and returned to the chair. He shot Stella a look that could have killed, and she winced apologetically.

  “I am far from as skilled as the elder Abbott in this chamber, but I am good with my hands. Please do not hesitate to request my help and presence if I can be of assistance.”

  “That is very kind. Please forgive my rudeness, I am working on the smallest steam engine ever created, and it is a touch finicky.”

  “That’s an engine?” Stella started but halted moving forward when her eyes locked with his warning glare. “I wish you both well. The combined intelligence and gifts of both guilds is long overdue.”

  Setting down the volt box, Stella opened the door and slipped out, leaving it ajar behind her.

  “She seems wonderful.” Pain laced Raven’s words.

  Benjamin wasn’t convinced which course of action was proper, to inquire further or to continue with business. Seeing the slump of her shoulders told him all he needed to know. He was fond of her physical appearance, but her personality drew him as well, and there was a story there, hanging like weights around her shoulders.

  “Did you lose siblings?”

  A tear streaked down her cheek as she turned and nodded. “I thought it was well known, but seeing as how our guilds do run in different circles, it is understandable. Three years ago, vampires stole my family. They were set up, given a missive from a noble family in France. I truly do not know all the details, and I only know the one that matters. The monsters took them from me, and I intend to end the monsters.”

  The power in her words impressed him. She was fierce in all things it seemed, or at the very least, in many.

  “Very well then, let us begin.” Christopher did not work with his hands, and he worked with their secret, which meant he had no tools present, and that would pose a problem. “I will send for my belongings. I do not work from these quarters. This is where I do Guild business and take meetings.” Again, another lie slipped seamlessly from his lips. Leaning around her, ignoring the way he brushed against her shoulder, he pushed the communicator’s button. “Please send an apprentice to Benjamin’s workstation and bring me his tools.”

  “Yes, Master Christopher.” A young woman’s voice responded without hesitation.

  “I had thought we would be returning as initially discussed, and my tools are not present.” He leaned over her shoulder, watching as her hands nimbly wound wire around three cogs in the small device she called an engine. He felt her shudder as he drew near, but forced his mind to focus on the task at hand. “What in the bloody hell have you got there?”

  “This, as I already stated, is the world’s smallest steam engine.” Picking it up, she placed it in the palm of her hand. “All I need to do is push this small button,” she flicked it in but did bother to look at him.

  Benjamin could not tear his stare off the small wonder and watched as the gears moved, one triggering the next, and a small puff of steam emerged.

  “My God,” he breathed, not having even realized the device held a water reservoir.

  “Or science.” She pushed the button, disengaging it, and the cogs stopped spinning. Mere seconds later, the steam vanished. “It can barely hold any water, but for our purposes, I believe it to be useful.”

  He was too stunned to ask her how, but luckily, she understood he’d want to know. Reaching out, he plucked the small device from her hand and turned it over, looking at it very carefully as she spoke.

  “I believe if there is a way to hook my steam generator up to a small weighted pendulum which in turn is connected to a small insulated box that can trap electrical current — ”

  “It would generate a charge as one walked, allowing electricity to build up — ”

  “And when the steam engine is engaged, could send the volt through . . . wires . . . into a target.” She concluded, a smirk on her lips and joy riddling through her expression as she gleefully crossed her arms over her chest.

  “That is absolutely fantastic. Truly.” His heart pumped rather quickly, both for the discovery they had made and for the way they stumbled on to it.

  Like two halves of a bloody whole.

  The concept had been hers from the start, but it had taken him hardly a minute to understand where she had been taking it. Stop the damned wedding bells, and this is work. You’re letting a few misses drive you batty.

  “Thank you.” She nodded in the direction of the volt and current box. “Please tell me you have something much smaller than those. I believe this device needs to be the size of a pistol to keep it efficient.”

  It was his turn to grin at her. “I do not. However, if your idea with the weighted pendulum can conduct a current into the wiring, I can adapt an insulated copper encasement to hold the charge. These two rather large boxes can create them on their own, but if we can use kinetics to make electricity – we can forgo the old dogs.”

  “I only have one concern
.”

  “Only one?” He chortled as he could think of near five and ten things which could go awry.

  “Indeed. If the current is always charging, will it not need to discharge? I worry that if the insulated unit grows to full, it could . . . well . . . zap the holder.”

  “Not if we can find a way to outfit the device with a timer mechanism of sorts – like in alarmed pocket watches.” He paused, thinking to himself, working his way through the solution silently. If we can measure the distance to a full charge box, we could easily create a device that would calculate and track that distance. “Except it would never be small enough.”

  “Pardon me?”

  Unless you utilize the secret that destroyed the relationship betwixt the guilds. Biting down, he ground his teeth together. This is about saving lives, London, and possibly the entire world. There is no option. “I promise you, Lady Raven of the Steam Guild, if we can find a way to generate power through step, calculate how quickly a small box would fill with current, and successfully utilize a pronged fork – much sturdier and more painful than mere wire – I assure you, I have a way to ensure we can create a small enough device that can keep the owner safe.”

  Her head cocked to the side, intrigue shadowing over her face. “And how is that, Lord Christopher of the Electric Guild?” She’d stepped closer to him, and her lips parted slightly.

  She would think him being euphemistic. There was naught to lose in speaking the truth. “Magic.”

  ***

  Benjamin wasn’t able to stop the yawn that slipped out of his lips. “Apologies,” he offered her a lopsided smile but wasn’t surprised to see she did not so much as look his direction.

  “Why are there no windows in this chamber? How do we tell time?” She continued to tighten the aluminum wire to the two bolts that held the pendulum in place.

  “Do you have windows in the chambers where you conduct business? Setting your leaders up to be attacked or secrets to be exposed?”

  The plier clanged onto the workstation as she looked at him for the first time in hours. “Is that the reason? So much cause for . . . fear? Even in the day?”

  He nodded. Christopher and the leaders before him had taken security seriously, even in the days before the world fell. He was surprised to realize the Steam Guild did not.

  “My quarters have an entire wall dedicated to windows. While it is in disarray, I love to look out upon the city. My father and brothers did as well. I had never thought of it as dangerous before.”

  “Intriguing. Well,” Benjamin removed his pocket watch from his trousers. “It is half-past two.” Reaching between her hands, he grasped the pliers and applied a little more pressure to ensure the connection was reliable. “Well, now I have given you something to think about.”

  “Aye, a great number of things, many of which involve ideas far too indecent to speak of.” She winked playfully at him, and he could not help but chuckle.

  “Do not tempt me, you are a lady of pedigree, and even in these times, you deserve a proper man.”

  “So, you admit to being a scoundrel?” An eyebrow quirked as she took the pendulum from him and moved her hand side-to-side, testing to see if the apparatus swung.

  He waited, watching as the pendulum worked wonderfully. “I confess to having spent far more time in a whore house than one of your stature desires in a match. Pass it to me,” he motioned at the small device and took it, slipping the wires into the small holes he’d drilled in a copper insulated box and wound the free end of the wire around the bolts inside to secure it. “I would be twisting my tongue in knots if I did not tell you the mere thought of a woman such as you – brilliant, beautiful, and not shying away from matters of sex – is very wonderful, but we are matched to create something. Perhaps if we are successful, we may enjoy a moment together in sin before returning to our worlds.”

  The words did not slip out, and he was not shocked he’d uttered them. Four hours had passed as they’d worked together to develop a proper box, a pendulum, and a simplistic design to fit them all together. In that time, he had learned of her family’s role in the creation of the steam engine, her leadership style, and how brilliant a woman she truly was. There was naught to keep him from pursuing her had they been different people. He was not his cousin, and he knew she would detest him when she learned of the lie – if she learned of it.

  And you will not marry a woman who cannot adore you because you are not who she believes she’s with. Marriage for alliances over love were common when the world was ending, or had completed and was being reborn. Yet, he had never wished for it for himself. Still did not, but he was interested in learning all there was to learn about Raven Nightingale as they worked to destroy the demons that plagued their world.

  ***

  “Very well then,” Raven rubbed at her eyes as she passed the cylindrical device to Benjamin.

  He stared at the bizarre silver tube, stared down into it, really. He could see the prongs that would deliver the jolt of energy to a predator, and the rose-colored metal box that was no doubt full of raw energy after Raven jostled it. What Benjamin couldn’t see was the steam portion of the device.

  So he flipped the tube over. For the purposes of their creation, they had secured a glass cover over the other end of the container. The black button from the steam engine was exposed, and if he looked past it, Benjamin could see the small cogs and gears.

  “Shall we test it and see how the elements connect together?” the insinuation of the way they’d grown entangled in more than inflaming and maddening position in the last three hours was not missed.

  Raven flushed a brilliant crimson.

  He liked the shade on her.

  He liked quite a lot about her.

  Benjamin had not been secretive about watching her as she’d worked. Her intense concentration rivaled his own. Raven held her breath when she attacked a delicate maneuver. Her cheeks would puff out in an amusing way, and her eyes would nearly cross as she stared at the project before her. Watching her, he’d only grown more intrigued by her. She was four years younger than he, and yet, she had such a hardness about her. It led him to wonder when the last time she’d done anything aside from the trials of work was.

  Most of their time had been spent in quiet, the rare outburst of joy or frustration accompanying specific actions. However, there had been moments of conversation when he’d almost revealed the Electric Guild’s secret merely because he wanted her to know some truth.

  She placed his hand on his and lowered the device to the desk. “I’ve never created anything like this – a meld of two sciences. I do not know if it will ever work, or if it does if we could ever work together to create anything more. However, I know if we can bridge the betrayal our father’s created betwixt our guilds, we’ll be able to eradicate those who suffer from the illness and return our lives to how things were.”

  “Never. We have come so far, and we will be better than before, greater.”

  She beamed over at him and shrugged. “Sometimes, I miss the simplicity of the world when I was a youth.”

  “Wait a moment, before we test this. Answer one question for me.”

  “Ha! I believe I have answered questions throughout this day.” She snatched his pocket watch from the desk and opened it. “My word, it is half-past ten.”

  The late time did not shock him. His entire being was weary from their work and lack of nourishment. He had only relieved himself once during the whole day, his focus solely on finishing the device to see if they had undeniably developed something that could help keep humanity just a smidge safer.

  “One question. I’ll answer it as well.” Truth would do him some good.

  “Go on.”

  “What is your dream for your life, you know, if one day we can be more than guild leaders?”

  Raven did not hesitate to speak. “I want to see the world. I want to be able to step outside my home after the setting of the sun and truly see London as I have not since I was a
child. I want to see children running through the streets without masks and goggles affixed to their faces. I want to feel hope again.” She finally stopped speaking and looked into his eyes. “I want everyone to feel hope.”

  He found he had held his breath as she’d looked into his eyes. Her words had been everything he’d not expected to hear. “Bloody hell. I feel like a cad. My answer is so . . . horrible.”

  She smiled at him, “well then?”

  He felt uncomfortable, realizing at that moment it wasn’t just his lies that made him unworthy of her. It was his soul.

  “I wanted to have a family and to perhaps enjoy the spoils and riches of being a famous inventor, or at least in charge of many famous inventors.”

  Giggling, she coughed to cover it up. “We cannot all be as deep as wonderful as women.”

  “Oh, give me that,” he took their invention and held it in his left hand. “Push the button together on three?” He let his finger hover over the black button.

  She placed her finger on top of his. “One . . . two . . . three!”

  Together, they pushed down, and a nearly knocked heads as they looked into the tube. No sooner had the small gears turned than did they hear a loud crack through the air.

  Whipping his attention to the tip of the weapon, his mouth dropped. The prongs were smoking – they’d done it.

  “You know what this means?”

  “We’d best go find a poor sod to test it on and see how deep the current runs,” she asked, her eyes not removing off the smoking end of the gun-like invention.

  “Unquestionably.”

  Chapter Nine

  Raven was raw, from the tips of her toes to the very pathways in her brain, she had given her everything to the work she and Christopher had done. To the product you’ve created. The gleeful thought was indeed enough to spur her to a burst of energy.

  “Once more, to be safe?” She beamed at Christopher, still holding the device in her hands.