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

by Jon Del Arroz

  One of the knights chuckled behind us.

  That stopped my father in his tracks, he turned. “In the back, you think this is funny?”

  “No, sir,” Frances said, then shut his mouth.

  I took my father by the wrist. “We’re all obviously on edge. We’re in some dark hallway that’s far smaller than it should be. We have the ground giving way beneath us, and have been imprisoned. On top of that we’ve had a few physical battles. We’re tired, we’re weak. It’s why we’re arguing. Father, why can’t we just go to the airship, get rested, and then come back and figure out what’s going on here?”

  “Because these quakes are getting more frequent. Something’s going on, and it’s in the now. Plus, we have a unique opportunity being in this passage already. You think we’d be able to sneak up on the Wyranth capital again?” he asked me, placing a hand on my shoulder.

  “We couldn’t sneak up on them the first time,” Talyen said.

  “Exactly.”

  “But we still need to keep going,” Talyen warned.

  It was frustrating, but there was no way I could win against both my father and Talyen. I took a deep breath to calm myself. My father needed someone to help him if he was going to pull off whatever he was thinking. If I couldn’t change his mind, I might as well help keep him safe.

  “Fine, we go find the cause of these quakes, or whatever you’re looking for.”

  “Trust my intuition, Zaira.” My father gave my shoulder a little shake, turned around, and started moving again.

  “You should, you know,” Talyen said to me, stepping around me once more so she could be next behind my father. “He’s a great man.”

  “There’s an opening up ahead!” My father said. He sounded excited. “I can’t quite make it out, but I think there’s some sort of chamber.” He quickened his pace, and we all followed suit.

  The narrow hallway opened into somewhat of a larger room. It looked like an entry or waiting place, and a sealed metal door loomed at the end of it. A gas lamp was positioned to its side, lighting the area better than the torches of the deep dungeon.

  My father moved to the door, which had no handle from this side. He tugged on it, but it didn’t give way. Then he tried the lamp as the torch at the other end of the hall, jiggling it when it didn’t move. When he pulled harder, the lamp broke off the wall. He jumped back, losing his grip on the casing. It crashed to the ground, shattering on the floor in front of us.

  That left us in complete darkness.

  “Everyone okay?” he asked.

  “I can’t see,” I said.

  “There were a couple of lights along the way, should we go and get them and try to get this one working?” one of the knights asked.

  “No, no,” my father said. “Hmm, well I wasn’t expecting a dead end here. I suppose there’s only one thing to do.”

  “Turn back?” I asked.

  “Of course not. That’s not the von Monocle way,” he said. I heard three distinct knocks on the door. Was my father insane?

  “There can’t be anyone but Wyranth on the other side!” I said, panicked.

  “And they don’t know we’re not one of them,” he said.

  I couldn’t see anything, so I couldn’t see how anyone positioned themselves. At least I could feel Toby rested on my shoulder. We didn’t want him scampering off in front of us. I imagined my father with pistol drawn, ready to pounce and shoot. That’s how the stories posed him, at least.

  Talyen remained silent, along with the other knights. They all had good military training that kept them following orders and reserved in these situations. Part of me hated that. If there were something foolish going on, someone needed to speak up.

  James moved to my side and brushed against my arm. The feel of his light touch made my insides tingle. Even though it’d been only a few days, it felt like an eternity since I’d seen him. I still wasn’t sure what I felt about him. He was always there for me, in some ways more of my family than anyone I knew, including my father.

  The door opened, swinging outward toward whatever was on the other side. Light filled the other side, slowly bringing our room for darkness and giving me my first glimpse of my companions since we entered the room. My eyes took a moment to adjust. The other side was much brighter than I thought it would be.

  A Wyranth soldier stood there, as I’d thought. He appeared utterly confused. “Who—?”

  “My good sir!” my father said, taking the lead and moving to the Wyranth soldier. He took the soldier’s hand for a shake. “I thank you so much for greeting us at the door. The Iron Emperor himself sent me, you understand, to… inspect what you have inside. Make sure the operation’s going smoothly.”

  “The operation,” The Wyranth soldier repeated.

  “That’s the one,” my father said, grinning and putting and extra amount of charm into it. It sounded ludicrous to me, but the others looked like they enjoyed his grandstanding by the adoring looks in their eyes.

  “Why are you wearing small clothes?”

  “Just woke up, good sir. You know how the Iron Emperor can get. Wants the job done now, now, now!”

  “He didn’t let you get dressed first?”

  “No, my good sir,” my father said. Now he placed an arm around the soldier’s shoulder. He walked him through the door.

  Talyen followed behind, then we all moved after them. James pushed in front of me as if that small act would protect me from harm.

  When we stepped into the next room, I saw that it was some sort of staging area. As I thought, it was well lit, but still enclosed in rock like the last tunnel had been. The ceiling extended out at least twenty feet, and there were large stacks of crates piled nearly to the top of it.

  “What are the crates for?” my father asked.

  “For the project’s sustenance. Shouldn’t you know that if you’re sent to inspect?” The Wyranth soldier blinked, taking a long look over Talyen, then me.

  “I was checking your knowledge, good sir,” My father said, removing his arm from the man and tapping his head. “Passed with flying colors. What did you say your name was again?”

  “Sergeant Wilheim,” he said.

  “Excellent, Sergeant Wilheim. Good job standing guard. We’ll head on through and leave a good mark on the report when we return. Keep your post, good sir!”

  Sergeant Wilheim started to nod, but then blinked at the knights with us. “How come they’re armored, if you’re in small clothes?” He slid from my father, heading back toward the next hallway behind him. “I’m going to go inform—”

  “Oh, no you’re not,” my father said. He pistol-whipped Sergeant Wilheim in the back of the head. In a fluid motion, he caught the solider before he hit the ground. With his head, he motioned for James and the knights to help him. “Let’s stuff him into one of the crates here, make it a little difficult for him to come out and follow us.”

  “Why don’t we just kill him?” James asked.

  “He seemed like a nice man. Don’t kill unless we have to, m’boy,” my father said. “Hmm… Strip him first. I think he’s about my size.”

  The knights took Sergeant Wilheim and did as my father asked. They found a crate and pried open the top. When it opened, stench filled the room. James went over to look inside, and then choked in horror, covering his mouth. “By Malaky,” he said.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  James turned away, bracing himself against the wall. He shook his head. He looked like he was moments from vomiting.

  Talyen moved over to the crate next, and her eyes widened in a shock I hadn’t expected to see from her typically stoic face. “Body parts. Bloody ones,” Talyen whispered.

  “Oh my,” my father said, grimacing. “Well, we can’t give them a proper burial. Perhaps we should kill this guard if that’s what he meant by sustenance. No, he’s just following orders, this isn’t his doing. This speaks of something far more evil.” He rambled to himself, but this was how he worked on the solutio
ns to problems. Whatever he pieced together in his mind, I had no idea.

  “Do you know what’s going on?” I asked my father.

  “No, I’ve never seen anything like it,” my father said. He at least sounded calm. He shook himself into the Wyranth soldier’s clothes all the same, and like he thought, they did fit him pretty well. At least we would look like four Wyranth soldiers, with two women in small clothes in tow. That at least could generate some sort of rational cover story, though one that gave me shivers to think about. “Bodies in boxes, bizarre,” he said as he plopped the helmet on his head.

  “Very,” Talyen said. “What could they be feeding?”

  “Vampires?” James asked.

  “Silly. Vampires don’t exist,” I said. Then I blinked. “Do they?” I glanced over at my father. I’d heard so many stories as a child, but what was real and what wasn’t, well, my knowledge was still limited.

  “That’s a funny question, Zaira, remind me to tell you a story about—”

  “Now’s not the time for a Harkerpal,” Talyen said.

  I couldn’t help but laugh at that, same with James. It diffused the tension of the moment and took our minds off the bloody mess in the crates. The knights searched the boxes until they found one that was empty, and stuffed Sergeant Wilheim inside. They placed the top over the crate, then Cid nodded to my father.

  “Well then, only one way to find out what we’re in for,” he said, motioning with his pistol toward the next hallway. He trudged ahead and led us through.

  We only had to go a small distance this time. The room opened into an enormous area, larger than I’d ever seen. It could have fit the Liliana inside twice. We must have been in the center of the mountain, which meant the Wyranth cored it out somehow. How much work had gone into the construction? This project must have been extremely important.

  I moved Toby to under my arm. He probably wouldn’t have moved from my shoulder, but I didn’t want to risk him running out to where he could be seen.

  The center of the room had a large rail that blocked the way to a pit in the middle. The pit itself produced a hazy blue light that pulsed throughout the entire room. It was almost overwhelming to the eyes. I was glad to be in an open room with plenty of light, strange color as it may be. As it pulsed, I could see more crates piled around the room in various places. Several wooden barrels were stacked throughout the giant room as well.

  Wyranth soldiers stood all around, a good dozen or more in the space. One manned some sort of machine that had vast tubes protruding into that pit. A large crane with several brass gears on its side hung over the pit. Those gears turned, lifting a crate attached to a long rope. All the non-soldier Wyranth worked hard, whether holding the crane’s robust steam exhaust port pointed toward a small aperture on the other side or turning levers on the first machine.

  The machine whirred, and a couple of Wyranth soldiers moved over to it, carrying large buckets. An ooze pumped through the tubes, having the same glowing blue property as the light that came from the pit.

  My father watched the whole scene and frowned.

  Talyen moved to his side. “Theo, what are we looking at?” she asked.

  “I have a theory but I need to see for certain,” he said and made his way toward the center of the big room. He leaned over the rail and looked down at whatever produced the light below.

  From that position, he would surely attract the attention of the Wyranth soldiers. I moved forward, but James stopped me with a hand to the shoulder. “He’s got the right uniform, Zaira, you don’t. Stay back here,” he whispered.

  “Oh my…” my father said, hopping back from the pit. His eyes were wide with wonder. “I can’t believe it.”

  Before I or anyone of us could ask what he meant, one of the Wyranth soldiers whistled at my father. “Hey, you, over here. We need some help with this.”

  My father turned toward the other soldier, who held one of those large buckets being filled with ooze. Without hesitation, my father sauntered toward that soldier.

  The rest of us crept back into the hallway, trying not to be noticed. I peeked around the corner to see what my father was doing.

  He assisted the soldier to tilt a barrel sideways toward the machine, which had a large valve that another Wyranth soldier had within his grip. As the barrel filled, the soldier controlling the valve closed it. The way that soldier slowly moved, it must have required tremendous strength. My father set the barrel down, wiping sweat from his brow. “Why’d we have to tilt it?” he asked.

  “Extremely volatile fluid,” the soldier said. He cocked a brow at my father. “You don’t know that? I thought everyone down here had been trained.”

  “I forgot.” My father shrugged.

  I was so caught up in my father’s conversation, that I didn’t notice a soldier standing by the wall on our side. He turned to go down our hallway and nearly ran into me. “What are you doing here?” he asked, staring directly at me.

  The knights stepped forward. “We’re escorting the sergeant’s concubines to greet him on his break,” Cid said.

  The guard didn’t buy it in the least. “No one gets in here without the Iron Emperor’s direct order.” He turned. “Corporal! We have intruders!”

  I fumbled backward, raising my pistol toward the soldier. I fired a shot, and it hit him square in the chest. He collapsed to the ground. With how well I’d been shooting thus far, I found myself liking the weapon. Much better than a sword or a knife. My father and Talyen were crazy.

  Talyen stepped forward and over the downed soldier’s body, waving the others to follow her lead. “Cover wasn’t going to last forever anyway. Let’s keep to this hallway, it’s the most defensible position so far. If they come forward, we’ll fall back to the room behind us. The crates will give us cover,” She reached out with an arm and swept me behind her.

  I didn’t have a great view of the larger room. The tunnel was turned just enough to give us that cover Talyen mentioned. I glanced around her and saw several soldiers moving our direction. My father was still out there, which scared me. How long could he maintain the ruse that he was one of them?

  James pulled me back from my attempt to peek. Bullets whipped past my head, hitting the rock wall across from me.

  “Careful,” James said.

  One of the soldiers charged into the hall. He was caught by surprise as Talyen jabbed him in the stomach with her knife, drawing the blade all the way up to his chest. She left the knife in him, lifting the pistol right from his hand. Then she pushed his body forward past the aperture.

  The other Wyranth soldiers opened fire into their own man, putting several holes through him. Talyen flung her arm around and fired a couple of shots over the dead Wyranth’s shoulder before he completely collapsed.

  I stood with my mouth agape, shocked at Talyen’s ruthlessness. I couldn’t see if her shots hit, but I did hear sounds of pain from the room outside. Toby squirmed from my arms and bolted back toward the last room.

  “Two more down,” Talyen said, turning to the side and pressing her back against the rock. “I think I spotted six more.”

  “Eight,” I corrected her from my own observations.

  “You sure about that?” Talyen asked.

  “I am. I got a good look when I was watching my father,” I said, happy to contribute something of use.

  Talyen nodded, pride in her eyes. “Okay. All of you in tight, here’s the plan,” she said, crouching and turning to face us.

  Before she was able to get another word in, several of the Wyranth soldiers rounded the corner and rushed us.

  I killed my first Wyranth in months today. It felt good. Killing shouldn’t come this easy, but I find it numbs the pain of missing Theo.

  An excerpt from Captain von Cravat’s log

  Day 40 of the Month of Dutchesses

  18th Year of Malaky XVI’s Reign

  “Look out!” I shouted, reaching my free hand forward as if that would be of any help. Hopefully my f
ather would hear my yell. He would be blended in with the other soldiers, at least. I hoped he wouldn’t be too far away to help.

  Talyen stood faced toward us, helpless against the charging enemy. She tried to spin around, but blasts rang out from the Wyranth soldiers’ guns. She jerked and hit the ground, much harder than when I’d seen her duck in the past. Blood trickled from her limp body.

  I stumbled backward in shock. Talyen couldn’t go down. Not like this. I’d thought of her as invincible, unkillable. Amidst all of the danger before she’d moved with such speed and precision that I’d thought the whole Wyranth army couldn’t be a match for her.

  Our knights reacted quickly. Both Cid and Frances fired return shots from behind me. Four of the Wyranth soldiers collapsed. James tugged at me, dragging me back through the tunnel to the staging room we first entered. “Fall back!” he yelled.

  Still in shock from seeing Talyen so helpless in her own blood, I screamed. The sound came out loud and high-pitched, and it echoed through the chamber. It may have been my imagination, but it appeared as if the pit pulsed more brightly in that moment, overwhelming even our hallway. Where was my father? Before I could think on that more, I heard a voice in my head.

  ZAIRA. FIRE YOUR GUN.

  The words rang in my ears, coming from everywhere and nowhere at once. I looked between the knights, but they remained focused on the charging Wyranth. Was this some sort of ghost of Talyen guiding me? The voice had too much of a male quality for that. No matter where they came from, the words reminded me that I wasn’t helpless to sit and watch as soldiers gunned down my friend. Even with James pulling me back around the corner, I leveled my gun and fired three shots, which emptied my pistol’s chambers.

  A Wyranth soldier grunted in pain. Though I could no longer see the action, I had hit at least one of them.

  The two knights who had fallen back to cover us made a push forward, hollering to distract the attention of the Wyranth soldiers. James and I retreated to the entry room, Toby was already there and moved to stay near me. James circled around one of the stacks of crates and led me there. “Stay down,” he said.