“The Clock Tower is made of iron. Uncle Edmund said as much.”
“Yes, but the steam pipes.” She stopped with two glass tubes clutched tightly in her hands. “The steam pipes are made of copper. They’re supposed to be coiled around the inside of the spire, used to heat the building. They’ll be my primary coil.”
Emmet stared at her and finally gave his lips a lick. “You don’t need me for this. You need another clockwerker.” He went to where David held the steering wheel and shoved him out of the way. “Help her.”
David didn’t leap at the opportunity to assist, something she knew went against his very nature. Any man who could build his own personal dirigible wouldn’t hesitate to play with electricity. There was something holding him back, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out what it was.
“I promise you I won’t breathe a word of this to the Company. They will know you were here as support, but not to the extent. I won’t let them pull you back in, if that’s what you’re concerned with.”
As the seconds ticked on, Nicola couldn’t afford to wait for his response. She begun to build the capacitor, though with the supplies she had, the size wouldn’t allow for much of a charge. She’d need to find more, or a bigger jar.
David squatted beside her. “What do you need?”
“A Leyden jar would be ideal, though something larger will allow for a stronger charge.”
“I have just the thing.” And he disappeared below deck.
Emmet was steering the ship closer to the clock face, now fully lit in the night. It was beautiful and an impressive display of engineering ingenuity. She prayed it wouldn’t be damaged as a result of what they were about to do.
“Is this going to work?” Emmet’s voice was nearly swallowed up in the rising wind.
“It better.” She didn’t know how, but Nicola suspected Mary wouldn’t stop once she’d exacted her revenge on Thomas. They were all in danger.
* * *
Cold. It took greater effort to move now. One step. Another. Slow and steady. But it was now so cold. She didn’t feel pain any longer. She couldn’t because she was dead. Was this hell then? She looked at her arm, no longer attached where it should be, lying silent on the ground. She didn’t need it. There was nothing for her to hold on to any longer.
The boy, Keegan.
She’d grown used to his company. It wasn’t love she felt for him. Could she feel anything? Not possible to love when one died. How long had it been? How long had Thomas kept her cold, lifeless body?
There was a time when Mary knew he’d loved her. In the beginning, when she was young and pretty. She’d never questioned it. Others thought Thomas had been sweet on Nicola, but Mary knew different. He saw her for what he could take, use, monetize. Money. Fame. Notoriety.
Mary was different. She’d seen a different side of him. The way he’d dote on their children. Dot. Dash. Will. He’d cared for her as well. Even when the pain had come, grown into something neither of them understood.
Men were around her now. Shouting. She turned and their images filled her mind, allowing her to see everything. They tried to stop her. Wanted to keep her from getting to him. To stop her from snapping his neck.
She hated Thomas.
She wanted him to die.
Why couldn’t he have left her to rot, to move on to heaven, where she’d have found her rest? She’d escaped the pain, finally able to close her eyes and not feel as though her head would split wide. No, he couldn’t give her the gift of peace because he was selfish. He didn’t want to face life without her.
Not fair. Stay with me, love.
No.
“Load the cannon again! Fire when ready!”
The cannon. She’d forgotten the name. There were giant gaps in her mind where things should live. Words. Thoughts. Feelings. Yes, a cannon. It would need to be destroyed, lest it take her other arm.
More men swarmed around her. New arrivals from the Tower. There was the one whose mind was like Keegan’s. She could reach out and talk to him. Did so now. Buzzing in his mind as she scratched around, learning his secrets.
He could make the metal do things, too, would try to harm her if possible. Mary increased the buzzing, knowing it would hurt him. Keep him from hurting her. His friend came to his side, a man with a metal hand. Mary looked down once more at where her arm should be. Yes, when she destroyed them all she’d find a replacement.
Maybe Keegan would build her another.
If he lived.
Thomas would pay for what he’d done to the boy. It had made it easier for Mary to talk to him, but Thomas didn’t know that. He thought the boy was expendable, an acceptable loss if it got him his Mary back.
But she wasn’t back. She was living in a cold shell. Only a shadow of her former self. She’d never feel the warmth of skin on skin or enjoy the wet kisses of her children. She’d be forced to live a life of torture, all so Thomas wouldn’t be alone. The bastard.
If he wanted to be with her, then that’s what he’d get. She’d tear his body bit by bit until he was only a head. They’d do to him what they did to her. Pull her back from the doorstep of paradise as she was about to cross. Maybe they’d put him in an automaton as well. Then they could stare at each other through dead eyes for all eternity.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Emmet was left to watch as Nicola and David worked on constructing the strangest device he’d ever laid eyes on. They’d stopped talking in complete sentences, somehow understanding what each other intended to do without speech. It was the sort of symbiotic relationship Samuel shared with Piper. It was what he wanted for himself, the only thing worth his sacrificing all he’d had.
A large copper circle now filled the majority of the dirigible’s deck. David apparently had a plethora of odds and ends below deck, giving them what they needed to construct a rudimentary coil. He could tell by the way Nicola was fussing with it that she wasn’t pleased with the result. The clockwerker in her wanted to continue to poke and prod, tweak until the end result was fascinatingly perfect. But as the screams from the dying men below reached them, they all knew that time was quickly running out.
“What do you need to do with that thing?” The wind has increasingly picked up as the night wore on, making it difficult to keep the dirigible steady.
David was sealing off the top of the largest glass bottle Emmet had ever laid eyes on. The scent of alcohol was no doubt burned into his nose, as David had poured the wine he’d been fermenting across the floorboards. “It’s going to store the electricity until we can discharge it.”
“How will you do that?”
“Don’t know yet.” Nicola looked up at him and grinned. “Can you bring the ship to the top of the spire? We’re almost ready to do this.”
Finally, a task to distract him. “Hold on.”
* * *
Mary stumbled as another blast from the cannon flew past her. The rush of air sent her stumbling, nearly crashing to the ground. They weren’t able to aim to hit her if she continued to move. The cannon was slower than she.
“Fire all you’ve got at her! Take the bitch down!”
She laughed. The sound erupted from her as she swung her arm wide, connecting with an unfortunate group of soldiers who thought they were being clever as they tried to outflank her. They were fools. And now they were dead.
She looked down and saw a man writhing on the ground. He had the same brown hair as Thomas, though worn longer. Mary stepped on him and crushed him into the ground with her heel.
Thomas.
The man who’s head she invaded stepped out in front of the barrier, his hands held up. “Mary, stop!”
No. Never stop.
“I know what you want. You want us to bring Thomas out to you.”
The man’s name was Samuel. His wife called him Sam. She was with child. He’d only just learned of it and wanted to go to her now. All this rushed through her mind in a flash as he pushed the information out to her.
; Dot. Dash. Will.
She stopped.
“These men are scared. You’ve terrified them, but I know you don’t want anyone else to get hurt.”
“What the bloody hell are you doing, Hawkins? Get back here,” the man with the metal hand shouted, but Samuel didn’t retreat.
“I’m ending this before anyone else dies.” Samuel stepped closer, but still remained out of the reach of her arm. “I’m giving her what she wants.”
* * *
The wind made the short distance to the Clock Tower challenging, and more than once Emmet had to fight to keep the wheel steady and prevent them from slamming into the building. Steadily, he managed to circle the tower as they rose, until they hovered near the very tip.
“Get beside it. We need to place this over the top.” Nicola’s short brown hair whipped around her face as she shouted. “We have no time to spare.”
The muscles in his arms strained, but he was able to maneuver the ship exactly where they wanted. Then he was forced to watch the two clockwerkers struggle to lift the large copper ring and toss it over the side. For one breathless moment, he was certain the ring would be caught by a gust and blown off course, but then it hooked around the center and wobbled its way down in a lazy circle.
Nicola whooped her delight. “Now to connect the top to the copper steam pipes.”
It was easier to release the air from the dirigible’s balloon and allow the ship to sink quickly. Within seconds they were hovering in front of the clock face, and Nicola was retrieving her harpoon gun.
“Where did you get that?”
“Believe it or not, it’s standard issue from the Company. It’s David’s.”
Another mystery for another day.
Emmet held his breath as she fired the gun, the blade from the harpoon piercing the stone beside the clock. Without hesitation, Nicola jumped free of the ship and swung across to a small balcony used for repairs to the exterior. God, how he loved this woman.
“The capacitor!”
David had secured the glass jar into thick rope netting. He clearly intended to drop it over for Nicola, though the ways in which the glass could smash to shards far outnumbered its ability to get there safely.
“Wait!” With some coaxing, he was able to turn the airship to the side, and brought the ship up enough that the jar would be on level with Nicola on the balcony.
She cut the jar free and carefully took it inside. Now gone from sight, Emmet could only pray everything would fall into place.
“Once she connects the primary and secondary coils and installs the capacitor, it will only take a short time for the electrical buildup to occur. We’ll simply need a way to direct the current.”
* * *
Mary dug around inside Samuel’s head, looking for the deception she had no doubt was lurking within. He’d either grown accustomed to her prodding, or she was losing some of her strength. Neither possibility was good.
If it was a lie, she could find no trace of it. Samuel would bring her Thomas. She knew the others wouldn’t understand her words—her voice box must have been damaged in the blast—but she let loose a loud roar, the speaker Keegan had used for her voice box echoing through her metal.
She wanted to cry, but was not capable. The other emotions she knew she should have—fear, frustration, loneliness—none of it resonated. They were only words. Empty as her shell. She had only her anger.
Keegan had told her he’d put great love into the crafting of her heart, the power source that forced her to move on. She wished he hadn’t, that it would wind down and stop working. That she could die.
“Mary, I need you to promise me that you won’t move.” Samuel’s voice rang clear. “Don’t hurt anyone else while I have Thomas fetched or they’ll think you can’t be trusted. Then you’ll never get what you want.”
She would. If she had to tear the city apart brick by brick, she’d get her prize in the end. For now she’d wait. Lowering her arm to her side, she continued to scan the group of soldiers, watching for any sign of betrayal. They were nervous. Scared. Wanted to fight her, but not sure how to win. She could tell they trusted Samuel, but they wanted vengeance for the blood she’d spilled.
It was something she understood.
Samuel nodded and shouted for someone to come. “Fetch Edison. Quickly.”
“Sergeant?”
“I gave you an order. Now move!”
The man scurried away, leaving her standing face to face with the man who could talk to machines. Curious, she pushed a thought out to him much the same way she had with Keegan.
You know what I will do to him.
Samuel stiffened, stumbled back slightly. His mind was too bright, where Keegan’s had been dulled by the drugs. But something must have come through, for the next thing she knew he crept closer. Nearly into range of her arm.
“Are you trying to speak to me?”
* * *
Nicola’s hands shook as she quickly installed the large Leyden jar in place. It wasn’t ideal, still damp from David’s wine and not nearly big enough to contain the electricity she hoped would be created. It was possible that the electricity would be too much for it and the glass would shatter, cutting through the skin and bone of anyone unfortunate enough to be standing in the way.
Her final task was to find an adequate power supply.
The clock minder had explained to them on their abbreviated tour that castle and Clock Tower were self-contained when it came to power. Their steam generators were housed beneath the ground in a tunnel, though the energy created was pushed into where it needed to go. It had been installed by the Hudson’s Bay Company, which meant the technology would be familiar to her.
She simply needed to find a way to plug in.
The clock mechanism had originally been intended to be wound daily as a means of keeping time. The clock minder had been quite put out when an electric power source had been installed the previous year. The energy flowed from the base of the tower through a hollowed out core and into the bottom of the machine. Nicola dropped to her hands and knees, frantically searching for the copper wiring that would grant her the power she needed to make her electricity coil function.
The thick bundle of cabling was visible running through the bottom on the far left side. Stretched out as far as she could go, she pulled on the bundle with all her might. For a moment, she wasn’t certain it would come free. But bit by bit she worked it loose, until she jerked it from its mooring with a thud. The pulse of live electricity hummed between her hands as she carefully slid it free from the metal clock mechanism.
One wrong touch and she’d be burned to a crisp. She’d been witness to the end result of a Company man’s experiment gone wrong, and had no intention of ending up in the same manner. With exacting moves, she put the live power source in place and backed away from the capacitor.
The air in the small room hummed, and the hair on her arms and the back of her neck stood straight up. The lights in the room flared bright, several of them exploding from the rush of electricity. Strange, she hadn’t considered that all devices might be impacted. She’d simply hoped to generate a strong enough blast of power to stop Mary.
Think about this later!
It would only be a matter of minutes for everything to be ready. She needed to get to the ground for the final piece to be fitted, or all her work would be for nothing.
* * *
Time held little meaning to Mary. It was only a means by which those who had life measured the ticking down of it. An hour in the presence of a person you respected. Five minutes while a man thrust into your body. Days where pain continuously throbbed through your body. None of that mattered to her.
She was dead.
She was infinite.
She was immortal.
“They’re getting him, Mary.” Samuel didn’t once look away from her. Whether he was looking for some sign of betrayal on her part, or simply did not want the distraction his men provided, she did not care. “Th
ank you for trusting me.”
Trust?
Did she trust any longer? Was that something she could do, existing inside a metal shell? No, this wasn’t trust. This was nothing more than the inevitable turn of events. They’d bring Thomas to her. She’d kill him. They’d try to kill her.
And time would tick on.
A rush of voices behind her. Shouting and orders, though not directed at her. It was then that she felt the soft rush against her mind, the gentle caress of the one person who cared for her in her current state.
Keegan?
“Mary.” He stumbled into sight, slipping past the guards, who wouldn’t get closer. “Mary, what are you doing?”
I’m getting my revenge.
“But they’re going to kill you.”
They can try.
“Boy, you need to move back.” Samuel was faster and far stronger than the boy, snatching him up in his arms. “She’ll kill you.”
Keegan struggled to get free. “No, she won’t!”
Yes, I will.
He stilled and looked up. “What?”
“Are you talking to her? Can you hear what she’s saying?” Samuel set Keegan down, but held him by the shoulders to speak to him. “I think she’s been trying with me, but I can’t make out the words.”
“Aye.” Keegan licked his lips and looked over to her. “She talks in me head.”
“We need to get her to stop. To stand down. Do you think you can convince her?”
You know what I want. They will bring him to me and I will make him pay.
“No. She’ll never stop. Not until Mr. Edison’s dead.”
Mary’s ears easily picked up Samuel’s muttered curse. “There has to be another way.”
“Make way!”
The moment Thomas emerged from behind the barrier, hands shackled in front of him, guards on either side, she knew this was the end. He’d refused to let her go into death. She refused to be stuck in this hell alone.
Have them send him to me.
Keegan looked between her and Thomas. She knew the boy felt a connection to her husband, despite what he’d done to him. When one has known nothing but hardship, it was easy to appreciate the glow of respect when given by another. Even if the motivation behind it is less than pure.
Quicksilver Soul Page 28
