The Havoc Machine

by Steven Harper

  Thad didn’t answer for a long moment, then muttered, “I could melt down your horse in a moment.”

  “Ah! Now we are making progress. Why could you do that?”

  “Progress?”

  “Answer the question, my husband. Why could you melt down Kalvis but not Nikolai?”

  “Because he looks like a little boy,” Thad nearly shouted. “Because he reminds me of David, and I couldn’t push him into a furnace any more than I could push you into one, you damned witch.”

  “I know.” Sofiya touched his knee softly. “I do know, Thaddeus Sharpe.”

  Thad was blinking back tears, something he hadn’t done since the last time he’d visited David’s grave. He felt drained, on the edge of exhaustion. “If you knew, then why—”

  “Because I think you needed to say it out loud to someone.” Sofiya rested her chin in her hand. “Are you hungry? I could ask Mama Berloni if she has anything more to eat.”

  When she said it, he became aware that he was both starving and immensely thirsty. “Definitely.”

  “A wife’s duty.” She rose to her feet with an impish smile. “You know, clockworkers aren’t always evil.”

  “Tell that to David. And Olga.”

  “Clockworkers also build many fine things,” she said, still standing. “They discovered how to use electricity and build airships and design efficient engines like this locomotive and thinking machines like Nikolai. They go mad in the end, but it is not their fault. It is tragic.”

  Thad’s mouth turned down. “Especially for their victims.”

  * * *

  The machine clung to the underside of the hot iron object. The iron tasted pleasant to the magnets on its feet, and the signal’s constant ping created a reassuring warble. But after an interval passed, the iron object slowed, then stopped. It exhaled great clouds. The machine hung on.

  The signal…changed. The machine listened for only a moment, then released the magnets and dropped away from the pleasant iron. It skittered out from under the huffing iron object and rushed away, past more objects, some moving, some still. A few jumped away with little shrieks or cries, but the machine ignored them. It scampered across a floating object that spanned an enormous amount of rushing fluid, and the signal rewarded it with happy tones. The machine found a tasty iron object that covered a tunnel. It pried the iron away, dropped into the hole beneath, and vanished into the darkness.

  A tall, blocky stone building in front of the hole bore a copper sign on the wall out front. The sign read BIBLIOTEKA ROSSIYSKOY AKADEMII NAUK, or LIBRARY OF THE RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.

  Chapter Seven

  Brass spiders covered the walls and ceiling inside of Thad’s wagon, and they stared at him with unnerving mechanical eyes. He saw his face reflected back at himself a thousand times. Thad tried to ignore this and concentrate instead on the speaker box in Sofiya’s lap. She was sitting on one of the pull-down benches while Thad stood with his back against the door. In the distance came the faint sound of the calliope, creating a rhythm to help the circus set up. A warbling sound emerged from the speaker, and Sofiya adjusted some of the dials until it cleared. Thad was afraid of that box and what it represented, and he hated that he was afraid of it. He remained rigid, refusing to let the fear show.

  “Are you there now, Mr. Sharpe?” asked Mr. Griffin’s chocolate voice from the box.

  “You know I am,” Thad replied. “And I’m sure you know we’re in Saint Petersburg.”

  “Indeed. Excellent work, including whatever you did during that inconvenient stop in the countryside.”

  Thad’s skin pricked under the spiders’ stare. “Thank you.”

  “One of my little friends went missing during that stop, by the way,” Mr. Griffin continued. “Have you seen it, by chance?”

  Ice water poured down Thad’s back and his rib cage felt too tight. Sofiya’s face stayed rigidly set in stone, though Thad saw her fingers go pale around one of the speaker dials. The spiders clicked among themselves as if whispering together.

  “I don’t keep track of your things,” Thad said shortly. “Would you like to go back and look for it on the tracks?”

  “Not necessary. I have more.” If Mr. Griffin had possessed hands, Thad was sure he would have waved one. “I just dislike being wasteful. How is Nikolai?”

  “He’s well.” The words nearly choked in the Thad’s throat. I’m making small talk with a clockworker. “At the moment, he’s with Dante, watching the circus put up the tents on the Field of Mars.”

  “So glad to hear it.”

  “Why?” Thad asked abruptly. “Why do you care what happens to Nikolai?”

  “I have an affinity for mechanicals,” Mr. Griffin said. “Are you surprised?”

  “You’ve arrived in Saint Petersburg, as you requested, sir,” Sofiya put in. “I believe that ends our business relationship, does it not?”

  “How much does the circus know?” Mr. Griffin countered.

  Thad tensed. “They don’t know anything. They think you’re an eccentric rich man who pays on time.”

  “And how much do you know, Mr. Sharpe? Tell the truth. I’m missing a spider, and that makes me…unhappy. Don’t bother fingering those knives you enjoy so much. You can’t move faster than one thousand, two hundred and forty-seven spiders. No, it’s two hundred forty-six. I forgot.”

  Now Thad’s mouth was dry. He thought about jerking the door open and fleeing, but that would leave Sofiya in Griffin’s taloned clutches, and in any case, he didn’t think he’d get very far. Thad hated this. Thad hated him. Griffin had invaded Thad’s home, his very life, and twisted it into something unrecognizable.

  “You haven’t answered my question, Mr. Sharpe.” Griffin’s too-smooth voice took on a condescending tone. “Have you lost the power of speech? Perhaps you need help to find it again.”

  A spider leaped onto Sofiya’s neck. She didn’t move, but she did cry out, and a trickle of blood ran down her pale skin between the spider’s claws. Through it all, she continued to hold the speaker box. Thad started toward Sofiya, then stopped himself when all the spiders in the wagon snapped their claws in unison against the wooden walls and ceiling. Sofiya gritted her teeth.

  “Stop it!” Thad shouted. “She didn’t do anything!”

  “How much do you know, Mr. Sharpe? Speak!”

  “I know you’re a clockworker,” Thad said quickly. “I thought at first that you hadn’t boarded the train, that it was a decoy or something similar, but I changed my mind. I know you need Sofiya and me for some sort of master plan, even though Havoc’s machine was destroyed. That’s all. I swear it.”

  A long pause followed. Sofiya sat perfectly still, the spider still on her neck. Tension lay thick and heavy as sulfur fog in the room.

  “What happened to my spider?” Mr. Griffin asked at last. “My precious little spider?”

  Thad glanced at Sofiya. Her eyes were wide and white. It was his fault she was sitting in the chair with a spider on her neck and a clockworker determined to do something horrible to her. He set his jaw. “I—” he began.

  “I destroyed it,” Sofiya interrupted. “I shot it with an energy pistol.”

  The spiders in the room turned as one to look at her. “And why would you do that to me, Miss Ekk, when I am watching your sister?”

  “It would have given me away.” A calm seemed to have come over her. “So I shot it.”

  Mr. Griffin said, “Interesting. Please put the speaker box on the floor, Miss Ekk.”

  “What are you going to do?” Thad demanded as Sofiya obeyed. Her hands were shaking.

  “I expect my employees to follow my commands. You poked about in forbidden places, destroyed one of my spiders, and tried to cover it up, Miss Ekk. Like a child, there is only one way for you to learn proper behavior.”

  Thad said, “Now look—”

  “Miss Ekk, please give your energy pistol to Mr. Sharpe.”

  Slowly, Sofiya produced the pistol from the folds
of her skirt and handed it to Thad. Their fingers touched, and Thad’s eyes met hers. Her face held rigid calm, but her hands were ice cold. She maintained such control. Thad couldn’t imagine how she did it. He felt every spider in the room staring at him.

  “Mr. Sharpe,” said the box, “I want you to shoot one of her hands off.”

  “What?” Thad said in disbelief. “I’m not going to—”

  “Yes, you are, Mr. Sharpe. Miss Ekk cost me a hand, metaphorically speaking, and she will pay for it with one of her own. You were involved in some way, so you will administer the punishment. If you do not, my spiders will take you both apart, and Miss Ekk’s sister, and I will find someone else to work for me.”

  Thad stared at the round little pistol. It crossed his mind to fire it at the spiders, but the pistol only contained one shot at a time.

  “Mr. Sharpe,” said Griffin’s horrible chocolate voice, “if I do not receive payment for my missing hand in three seconds, everyone in that wagon will die. One…”

  Pale and shaking, Sofiya held out her left hand. A small, stupid part of Thad assumed she had chosen her off-hand.

  “Two…”

  Thad held up the pistol. He couldn’t quite comprehend what he was about to do. Guilt and fear, two of his most familiar friends, filled him like sour milk in a glass. Sofiya nodded at him, her eyes never leaving his. His mouth was dry as sand.

  “Three.”

  Thad pressed the barrel of the pistol to his own left palm and pulled the trigger.

  A red explosion of pain ripped through his hand. The pistol clattered away and he dropped to his knees. The tearing, burning agony ran all the way up his arm. A smell of cooked meat permeated the air. Most of his hand was gone. A blackened, pulpy mess that showed yellow bone was all that remained. He had dipped his hand and wrist in molten lead, and the horrible pain consumed his entire being. There was nothing in life but the pain. Flakes of charred skin fluttered to the floor. Thad’s throat was raw from the screaming.

  “An interesting choice, Mr. Sharpe,” said the speaker box.

  Sofiya touched his shoulder. He looked into her calm blue eyes, and then something pricked his arm. She pulled away a long glass syringe. The pain receded a little, and then Thad’s world went dark.

  * * *

  Thad pushed through thickets and dark fog. Voices muttered and groaned like hidden ghosts. His limbs felt heavy, and he struggled to move. His hand hurt. No, it was his wrist. A woman was talking to him, and he fought toward the sound of her voice. At last he managed to pull his eyes open. The fog receded a little, though his vision was still blurry.

  “Can you hear me, Thad?” Sofiya’s accented English carried her worry. “Can you speak?”

  Thad tried, but his tongue felt weighed down with wood chips and stone. He managed to croak, “Thirsty.”

  A cup came to his lips, and he drank cold water. The simple act helped wake him up more and he became aware that he was lying on a pile of quilts atop one of the fold-down shelves in his wagon. Sofiya was sitting next to him. The spiders and speaker box were gone.

  “How do you feel?” she asked.

  “Heavy.” His lips were a little numb. “What—?”

  “Try to stay still,” she said. “The opiates should wear off soon, but you will feel their effects for a while.”

  “Where’s Griffin?”

  “He has left. Some men with horses unhooked his boxcars from the train and hauled them away. Do not worry about him right now.”

  Another thought came to him, and this one carried a stab of fear with it. “What about Nikolai?”

  “He’s with the Tortellis. He’s perfectly fine, though he worries about you. Dante watches him.”

  His mind was still blurry. “I can’t—what happened to—?” And then it all came rushing back. The crackle of the pistol going off and the horrible pain. He started to lift his left arm, but Sofiya gently pressed it back down to the bed.

  “I do not know that you are ready for this,” she said. “Perhaps you should wait.”

  Dread drove more of the dizziness away. “Wait for what? I…lost my hand, didn’t I?”

  “You took the shot Mr. Griffin intended for me,” Sofiya said softly. “And you saved my sister. Thank you, Thad.”

  “You only destroyed that spider because I missed it,” he said. “That punishment was meant for me.”

  “I am still grateful.”

  “Let me see,” Thad said. “I want to see.”

  Sofiya nodded and released his arm. Thad raised it. The sensations were strange. It hurt, but not as badly as it seemed it should. He could also still feel his hand in a strange way. He had read of people who had lost limbs being able to feel them. Was it a mangled mess? Or had Sofiya cut it off at the wrist? And how had she done it? Why did she have a syringe and opiates with her? The ache grew more intense when he moved, though there was no trace of the horrible burning he had felt before. He would have to learn how to get along with only one hand. The implications were too powerful for him to think about. He brought his wrist into view.

  He had expected to see a bandage, but metal gleamed at the end of his wrist instead. Thad stared at his new brass hand. The fingers were thin and showed spinning gears at the joints. The hand itself was blocky and sinewy at the same time. Parts of it were covered with brass skin, but most of it revealed the machinery beneath. The hand had been created from one of Mr. Griffin’s spiders.

  “I am sorry for the inelegance,” Sofiya said. “I had to work quickly, with the materials I had at hand. So to speak.”

  Thad turned it back and forth in the light of the lamp that hung from the ceiling. A thick ring of scab and shiny scar tissue encircled his wrist just below the metal. He couldn’t quite take it in. He tried to move. The fingers twitched, spread themselves open, made a fist. The sensation was more than strange. It was like wearing a thick glove that made his hand a little numb and unresponsive, but still his. Then shock overcame him. His skin went cold and he wanted to fling the hand away, but it was attached. His gorge rose and acid burned at the back of his throat. Fortunately, Sofiya had anticipated this and was ready with a basin. When the nauseating spasms ended, she gave him a handkerchief and the cup of water. Automatically he tried to take the latter with his new left hand. The metal fingers clenched around the pottery and shattered it, sending water everywhere.

  “Sorry,” he muttered, blotting ineffectively at the mess with the handkerchief. He was suddenly embarrassed at being in a sickbed in front of Sofiya, especially with her playing nurse. At least he was still wearing his clothes.

  “It is understandable.” She produced a tea towel to help clean up. “It will take time for you to learn its use.”

  “I can’t seem to—” He stiffened. “You. I didn’t understand before. You forged this hand. Not Griffin.”

  “Yes.”

  “You amputated my original hand and attached this one.”

  “Yes.”

  “You’re—”

  “A clockworker. Yes.”

  The signs rushed at Thad like boulders down a mountainside. The agility she had displayed on the train. Her remark about clockworkers not being evil. Her occasionally erratic behavior. Her affinity for Nikolai. The horse and the pistol. He had assumed Kalvis had come from Mr. Griffin, though she had never actually said so, and she had simply lied about buying the gun. His stomach roiled again and he swallowed hard to keep it under control.

  “You’re fil—”

  She held up a hand. “That will keep.”

  “You’re as bad as Griffin.” He thrust out his own hand, the brass one. “You did this to me in order to—”

  “I saved your life because you destroyed your hand for me. Is this something a lunatic would do?”

  He closed his eyes. The world rocked around him, pushing and pulling at him and trying to tip him over while he slid a sword into his throat. He felt for his blades, but they were gone. She had taken them.

  “How is it possible?” he
said. “You don’t present like a clockworker.”

  “It is early for me still.” She rested in her chin in her hand. Her fleshy, human hand. “I know what you have been through, Thad. I understand it from the inside. But you cut the world in half with your swords and your knives, and you believe everything must fall on one side or the other.”

  “Clockworkers are monsters.”

  “A clockworker saved you,” she said. “An automaton saved you. What does it take for you to see us as something other than evil?”

  Thad didn’t answer for a long moment. Then he said, “We haven’t heard the end of Griffin, have we?”

  “I doubt it very much. He still needs us for something. Like he needed Havoc’s machine.” She wound a strand of golden hair around her finger. “I was the baby of the family, you know. I had four elder brothers and two elder sisters. My mother was a dairy worker outside of this very city. She knew to make cheese that melted in the mouth. My father, he was often away. There was no work in my village, so he often went to Saint Petersburg. Many men do this, and leave their families unprotected. And still there was little—my family were serfs and most of what we earned went to the landowner in taxes and fees. Ivan and Mikhail, two of my brothers, were conscripted into the army when they were thirteen and fourteen.” Her face grew sad. “I still have not heard what happened to them. They are probably dead, fighting Turks in a foreign war, but no one thinks to write home about the death of a serf.”

  Thad lay without moving. Each word was a tiny nail that pinned him to the bed.

  “There was no money, ever. My mother, she later found work in the landowner’s kitchen as a cook, and then things became a little better. Cooks, of course, can sneak extra food away, and they also have a reputation for being willing to trade their bodies for little gifts from other men.”

  Thad stared at her. “Your mother let men—”

  “Yes, of course.” Sofiya straightened her cloak. “I know that farther west, people find this shocking, but in Russia, it is quite normal. The husbands of the women all know it happens but act as if they know nothing. It became better at home because Mama could sell the things men gave her. And we could eat twice a day.”