For Steam and Country: Book One of the Adventures of Baron Von Monocle

by Jon Del Arroz

  “I hate to break up the family reunion,” Talyen said. I turned to see her staring back down the hallway where we came. “But I hear footsteps. Sounds like at least two people.”

  Two Wyranth soldiers appeared in the corridor both with pistols in their hands. They must have gotten past the knights, or taken another route into the dungeon. “Rislandian scum. This little rebellion is over,” one of them said, waving his gun between the three of us.

  I hoped the others had been able to get out before the soldiers arrived. Though I feared for the worst.

  Father put his hands up, and I followed his lead, watching him from the corner of my eye. “Please, don’t shoot. We’ll do as you say,” he said. His voice quivered. I’d never heard him sound so helpless. Had the Wyranth tortured the fighting spirit out of him? He didn’t sound like the Baron von Monocle everyone gushed about.

  Before either of the Wyranth could respond, Talyen moved like the wind. It happened in a flash. Her hand went to her back. I blinked, and in that instant she’d drawn a knife and thrown it. “Down!” she screamed.

  The knife flew straight into the Wyranth’s left eye. He stumbled, convulsed, then collapsed to the ground.

  I knew better than even to hesitate. Talyen had told me under no uncertain terms to follow her orders to the letter. I’d been bad about that so far, but I wouldn’t mess around in combat. I dove and hit the stone beneath me, bracing myself with my palms. My skin scraped on the floor. Toby scampered away with the sudden movement. I looked to the side to see my father on the ground next to me.

  He didn’t have fear in his eyes, at all. They twinkled with pride.

  The other Wyranth soldier fired a shot toward Talyen. If we hadn’t followed Talyen’s lead, one of us might have been dead. The bullet ricocheted off the stone wall.

  Talyen charged at the Wyranth soldier, diving to tackle him. The Wyranth was caught by surprise, and Talyen succeeded in knocking him over.

  They scrambled along the floor, wrestling. I froze, scared out of my wits. All I could do was watch as they tumbled, each trying to get atop each other, retain control. Talyen grabbed hold of the pistol for a brief moment and smacked the Wyranth soldier in the face with it. He recoiled but took control of the grapple, positioning himself atop Talyen.

  Father rushed to his feet, but years of sitting in that dungeon slowed his reflexes. He barely managed to right himself while Talyen and the Wyranth battled.

  Talyen tried to pry the pistol from the soldier, digging with her fingernails into his hand. She succeeded, but she lost grip of the pistol itself. Both her and the soldier paused as it flew from his hands and bounced on the floor, sliding across the stone toward my father and me.

  It settled just past where my father now stood, right in front of my face.

  The soldier drew his arm back to punch Talyen in the face. She fell backward and into his clutches.

  I grabbed the pistol and scrambled to my feet, pointing it at the two of them. I’d had a little bit of training with the weapon from the commandos back on the Liliana, but Talyen’s body stood between me and a clean target. I held it as the commandos taught me, two hands, arms straight forward.

  The soldier used Talyen as a shield, wrapping an arm around her neck. “Drop it or I break her in two!”

  Talyen stared at me, struggling to get air with the choke hold the soldier had on her. “Shoot,” she mouthed to me.

  I glanced to my father, who stood facing them, eyes narrowed in calculation. If he moved for them, he wouldn’t be able to get to Talyen fast enough. Refocusing on the soldier and Talyen, I saw it would be tough to get a clean shot. What if I hit her? I would never be able to live with myself.

  The soldier squeezed her neck tighter.

  I fired, the gun recoiling in my hand.

  My shot truck true, the bullet hitting the Wyranth soldier in the face. He went limp, arms falling from Talyen. Then he fell to the floor.

  I realized I’d been holding my breath in the whole time. I exhaled, relieved beyond belief that I hadn’t killed my friend.

  Talyen stepped away from the Wyranth soldier’s body, gasping for air.

  My father stood and walked over to her, placing a hand on her shoulder and looking down at the Wyranth soldier who had a pool of blood forming around his head. When Talyen had caught her breath, she pulled him into an embrace.

  My father turned his head to the side to look at me as he wrapped his arms around Talyen in return. “Good shot, Zaira. Better than I could have done. Looks like Talyen here has trained you well.”

  Before I could respond, Talyen pulled my father into a kiss. I turned away as quickly as I could. Disgusting!

  I heard the sounds of their lips smacking together. Those sounds echoed and made me want to wretch.

  When I looked over, they had concluded their all too public display. They walked toward me. Talyen’s face had turned a hotter red than I could have ever imagined. My father had a twinkle in his eye. “Sorry, Zaira,” my father said. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen Miss von Cravat here, and I couldn’t well leave her in a situation where one of us might die without, ah, catching up.”

  Yuck. “Next time do it in private.”

  “Okay,” Talyen said, her professionalism and tone of command returning as if that display had never occurred. “We’re still in a Wyranth dungeon and need to find a way out of here before more soldiers find us.” She crouched to search the first soldier’s body and found a second gun. The knife she’d used was still stuck in his face. She pulled it out of him while using her foot to keep the body down.

  She walked back over to us, handing my father the pistol she’d grabbed. I offered her mine in return but she waved me off.

  “Can’t you use this much more effectively than me?” I asked, holding it gingerly.

  “Yes, but I’m just as effective with this.” Talyen flipped the knife into the air with ease, and then swiped it out of the air by the hilt. “A gun’s easier to use, might come in handy in a pinch for all of us to be armed.”

  “Anything is a deadly weapon in your hands, my dear,” my father said with a toothy smile to Talyen.

  Yuck again. I glanced down at the gun in my hand, and then gripped it properly, keeping the barrel down at my side. “Okay, let’s go then. But where to?”

  “Before I was captured, my operatives mapped this place. We had a planned rescue of several of our people here, but never got around to it. There was always some other, more pressing mission,” my father said. “Fortunately, I have a perfect memory.” He pointed the direction we hadn’t gone yet. “If we keep following this, there should be a hidden door that leads to other tunnels. Those will lead us to the mountain behind the city. It would make for the best way to avoid the soldiers in the city, who are no doubt swarming looking for us at this juncture.”

  “Theo, we had others with us. A few good members of the crew and some Knights of the Crystal Spire who came to rescue us when our own rescue attempt failed. They had already gone up into the city. What do we do about them?”

  My father stared back in the direction we had come, brow furrowing in contemplation. “I think it’s too late to do anything about it now. If I know our crew, they’ll find a way out of this awful place. We have to trust they made it.”

  “I thought we don’t leave people behind?” I asked.

  “Not locked in a cell, but your father’s right. At this point, our people are either dead or they made it out. Going back to check would be reckless and just get us into trouble. If they didn’t make it, we’ll find out soon enough.”

  I nodded, knowing in my heart that was the best strategic decision. All the same, James had been back there, and there was nothing I could do about it. My heart sank in worry. That reminded me of Toby. I clicked my tongue, and he ran over to me from his hiding place, crawling up my leg and back onto my shoulder.

  “Come on,” my father said, and led the way further down the dungeon’s catacombs.

  King Malaky
has ordered that the ship remain grounded for now. In some ways, I am relieved. It’s not the same without Theo. Our crew will still train as a unit. We will operate as special forces, of a sort, for some of the King’s more difficult operations.

  An excerpt from Captain von Cravat’s log

  Day 23 of the Month of Dutchesses

  18th Year of Malaky XVI’s Reign

  A couple of turns later, we stopped in front of a solid wall. My father stood staring at it for a good, long moment. “Hmm,” he said.

  “It’s a wall,” I said.

  “He knows that, Zaira,” Talyen said, moving to his side. “He mentioned hidden doors before.”

  My father turned around, motioning me closer as if he wanted to teach me something. I wished I could share my whole life with him, even though it wasn’t the time. He’d been down here for two years, and I’d missed out on that. I wanted to find out what they did to him, to tell him how much I’ve learned.

  He took my hand and ran it over the surface of the wall in front of us. Toby sniffed his hair from my shoulder.

  “Feel that?” my father asked.

  “It feels like a wall,” I couldn’t help but say, amused with myself even if the older folk weren’t.

  “What about here?” He pushed my hand further down the wall. There was a distinctive bump where it didn’t quite line up. It would have been difficult to find for anyone who didn’t know it was there.

  “It feels different,” I said. For some reason my father’s presence made me feel like a little girl again, but in a good way. I liked that he wanted to teach me his ways. It felt good, like I had family back. Even learning from Talyen felt that way to some extent.

  “That’s right, a slight differentiation between the levels of the wall. This is where the hidden door is.” He nodded, sure of his own assertion.

  “So, do we give it a push?” Talyen asked.

  “That’s right,” my father said, giving my hand a nudge forward..

  At his prompting, I pushed harder on the wall. The hidden door creaked open slowly. The screeching sound of dry gears sounded as those wheels turned and opened a passage into whatever existed beyond.

  “Ladies?” He motioned for us to step through to the darkness beyond.

  “Wait!” a voice echoed down the hallway behind us.

  All three of us spun in one quick motion, though my movement nearly knocked Toby from off my shoulder.

  Father had his pistol drawn, pointed over my shoulder in the direction of the voice. “Hold it, and drop your weapons now!” he said. His voice changed, sounding protective, like a leader. It gave me shivers.

  At seeing my father’s weapon, I fumbled with my own pistol, pointing it the same direction. Two guns had to be more intimidating than one.

  Talyen kept her hands at her side, narrowing her eyes. Now that I’d seen them both, I noted a difference in leadership styles. While my father may be more of a shoot first and ask questions later type, Talyen liked to calculate scenarios. That fact made them a good team. Balance.

  A figure came out of the shadows, with two others following. It was James. He had his hands up, sword and gun holstered in his belt. “Don’t shoot! It’s me, James Gentry. Sorry, I should have said that first. Uhh…” he motioned behind him. “These are my fellow Knights of the Crystal Spire, Cid and Frances. We’re here to help.”

  Father kept his pistol steady for a moment, then returned it to his side. He beamed a smile. “Good, we can use all the help we can get. No telling what we’ll run into down that dark path.”

  Talyen inclined her head as if she knew it would be them all along. “What of the rest of the Liliana’s crew?” she asked.

  “They made it out through the main city gate. On our way in, we set a timer on a device we call a tinsomatic screecher.” He waved his hands. “Don’t ask. The knights rely on all sorts of strange things to get the advantage. Anyway, it created a lot of chaos back there. Cid said we should leave the city with them, but I didn’t see you, and I wouldn’t leave. I think we may be trapped down here now though. Unless you have a new path out?” James asked, glancing to the opening where the false wall had been.

  “This way will be much safer,” my father said. He stepped over the threshold and took the lead. “In theory, at least.”

  “Yes, we came in the Liliana,” I said.

  “My ship?” My father’s eyes lit up before he turned to lead us. Though he’d motioned for ladies to go first before, that changed now that the knights had arrived.

  Talyen followed, and I moved after that with the knights bringing up the rear. “You hadn’t told me the story of how you arrived here, James,” I said, making conversation to ease some of the tension that loomed over us. As this passageway had dirt walls, compacted, like it was a side project that had never been completed, I didn’t feel entirely safe. If one of those earthquakes happened like the many recent ones we’d experienced, it would be liable to cave in on us.

  “Mr. du Gearsmith went to King Malaky immediately after you left. He sounded worried about what you were doing and told the king your plan to come to the Wyranth capital and rescue your father. At first, the king was pretty mad that you didn’t follow his orders, but then he said he should have expected it from a von Monocle, whatever that means,” James said.

  “True,” father said, laughing.

  “He dispatched us immediately to back you up, and we took a more direct route over land with a horseless carriage.” James snapped a finger. “Hey, I finally got to ride in one. Not as much fun as an airship. The ride’s much bumpier. Anyway, the Grand Rislandian Army paved the way forward, allowing us smooth travels. Since there were only three of us, it wasn’t difficult to slip over the border and traverse here. We found the Liliana in the foothills and flagged down some of the crew still on the ship. They said you were later than anticipated, which led us to believe you’d been caught. That brought us here.” He glanced back to his fellow knights.

  Cid nodded approvingly as we moved along. “He’s my apprentice. A quick study,” he said.

  “Anyway, then it was about waiting for the right time to mount a rescue of the rescuers. We needed the Wryanth to get comfortable thinking they had succeeded and that there weren’t any reinforcements coming. I hope they didn’t hurt you while we were assessing the situation?” James asked to me in particular.

  “Other than a bizarre marriage request…” I said with a shrug.

  “What?” James, Talyen and my father all asked at the same time.

  “I’ll tell you about it later.” I remembered again that I was walking around in my smallclothes in front of James nonetheless. That with my offhanded remark made the situation far more embarrassing than I thought it would be. I blushed, glad no one could see the colors of my face change.

  Talyen nudged my father in front of us. “We’re chatting too much. Let’s pick up the pace.”

  “Yes, dear.”

  We followed my father down the path, which was far darker than the poorly lit cells. It made it difficult to move quickly. The walls closed in around us as we moved, forcing us into a narrow, single file line.

  Just as I feared, that’s when an earthquake hit.

  I lost my footing and braced myself between the narrow walls. Pebbles fell from the ceiling, and dust kicked up from the floors, leaving us coughing.

  “Another one,” I said. “They’re happening so frequently now.”

  “More here in the Wyranth capital than elsewhere, but yes. There’s something going on. I aim to get to the bottom of it,” my father said. He planted his feet and started walking again.

  “What do you mean?” Talyen asked, following behind him.

  As we continued, the pathway became narrow enough that we had to squeeze through sideways. I was after Talyen, then James, and the other knights were behind us. “You mean you don’t think it’s natural?”

  “Not in the least,” my father said. “A lot of soldiers and scientists passed through the dungeon ov
er the years, people you wouldn’t have expected to see. I watched, and tried to analyze their movements, but I didn’t have any clue what was going on. This secret tunnel may yield answers.”

  “Is that why you took us this direction?” I asked. He may have not been taking us to the ship after all. The great Baron von Monocle had another agenda beyond getting his people to safety. It didn’t surprise me based on the stories the crew had told me.

  “That’s right,” my father said, his tone of voice making it sound like nothing out of the ordinary.

  Even though this certainly sounded similar to the stories the crew had told me about his past actions, I couldn’t help but be angry. I’d risked my life. By Malaky, scores of others had risked their lives in a foolish attempt to liberate him from this evil empire. I couldn’t let him risk that. “Father, we need to leave. The whole Wyranth army is after us!”

  “I agree with Zaira,” James said from behind. The other two knights didn’t speak. They must have thought this to be an entertaining family argument.

  “The both of you are perfectly welcome to walk back to the ship. I’m going to determine the cause of these earthquakes and what’s been odd about the Wyranth soldiers these last years. And then I’m going to put a stop to it.”

  “I’m going with him,” Talyen said, resolved.

  “If there’s some sort of contraption controlling the ground like this, causing these shakes, it’s going to be heavily guarded. The two of you alone won’t be enough,” I said.

  “There you go, Zaira. Thinking like a von Monocle,” my father said, continuing on his way without even a glance back in my direction. A man on a mission.

  Oh, he was infuriating! “Father, don’t make me drag you out of here.”

  He laughed. “I’d like to see you try.”

  “That’s it,” I said, pushing past Talyen so that I could reach him. I’d thought my father was dead, never dreaming of a reunion, and this was how it was going to go? Because of his stubbornness? I didn’t think so.