Madelaine came running through the garden, leaving Nurse Danforth behind as she weaved between the adults. “Mama, Papa is here, and the Abbot is with him!”
“The Abbot?”
Hearing William’s voice, Constance glanced back over her shoulder to see him entering the garden with Mr. Fujita, his official translator. The Abbot and two monks followed right behind him, dressed in their peculiar uniform of white pants, a black tunic, and a gold sash wound across their chests and around their waists. Constance hurried forward with a bright smile. William caught sight of her. His moment’s hesitation and the sudden broadening of his smile put to rest any doubts she might have had about her appearance. That was small comfort compared to the social disaster looming over her.
Madelaine approached the Abbot, holding out one of her origami dragons cupped in both hands. Mr. Fujita stood by ready to be of service.
Constance seized the moment to draw William aside. “William! How could you bring the Abbot here?” she asked in a furious whisper. “Such an important person, with so little ceremony?”
“Please, Constance, calm down. I think the Abbot has had quite enough ceremony for a few days. Mr. Fujita gave me to understand that the Abbot would enjoy nothing so much as a simple garden party.”
“But — but I have no idea what the protocol is for this type of visit!”
The Abbot received the little paper dragon as he would the finest treasure. By Mr. Fujita’s broad smile and enthusiastic tone of voice, along with Madelaine’s blush, there could be no doubt the Abbot was quite pleased.
“The garden is beautiful, the music is playing, and the guests are enjoying the local delicacies.” William looked around with a satisfied smile. “I’d say you’ve done your work very well, Mrs. Harrington.”
“Mama!” Madelaine hurried over to Constance and motioned her to bend down. “We need to make a special seat for the Abbot, with a shade over it!”
Further panic gripped Constance. Desperation forced her to take the only course open to her. “Show me, Maddy. You know about these things.”
Madelaine walked over to one of the fine armchairs positioned in the shade of the plum tree. She gripped the arm and began tugging at it.
“Really, Madelaine,” Nurse Danforth said. “Perhaps some of these gentlemen might help you.”
Two of the male guests stepped forward to lift up the chair. Maddy grabbed one of the smaller rugs and spread it on the ground. Her helpers set the chair down on the carpet with its back against the trunk of the plum tree.
“There, Mama. That should do.”
Constance bent to hug Madelaine and kiss her cheek. “Whatever would I do without you, darling?”
“You’re welcome, Mama.”
The Abbot allowed Madelaine to lead him to the armchair. The two monks with him took up their posts on either side.
“Oh my goodness,” Constance said. “I must see to serving the Abbot myself.”
William’s arm came around her shoulders, both a gentle hug and a restraint. “My dear, I believe you were telling me just the other day how concerned you are about Madelaine growing up to be a proper British hostess.” He smiled down at her. “The Abbot loves children. If he has any serious needs, one of his monks will see to it.”
“Well, if it’s really all right ...” Madelaine had become quite a mystery. Only nine years old, yet she seemed to have stepped into the world of Japan much like a native who’d been away only a short time. She knew about the Blue Dragon Festival, and which sweets were appropriate for Spring, and how they must provide the special chair for the Abbot ... Constance still felt quite lost among all the customs and history and new words and old traditions.
William patted her shoulder. “I will ask Mr. Fujita to stay with the Abbot in case any of our British guests would like to pay their respects.”
“Yes. What an excellent idea.” Constance felt the water closing over her head as she sank even farther out of her depth. “I must go look in on the refreshments and see if we need more of anything.”
Constance made her way through the gathering into the blue pavilion, exchanging greetings and compliments. The lemonade pitchers needed more ice. She was surprised to see how many of the Japanese sweets had already been eaten. She hurried into the house in search of Mrs. Rogers and very nearly crashed right into her.
“Here now,” Mrs. Rogers said, “you look a bit peaky, Mrs. Harrington.” She pulled out one of the wooden chairs at the kitchen table and sat Constance down in it, then poured her a glass from a fresh pitcher of lemonade. “You take a few sips of that, ma’am.”
Constance obeyed. “Is it going well, do you think?”
“Oh yes, ma’am. It’s all we can do to keep food on the buffet! Everyone is saying how wonderful the garden looks.”
Constance drew a slow, deep breath. Perhaps everything would be all right after all.
From the garden came the slow, metallic clank of some large mechanism being wound up. Constance groaned.
“That child!”
She took one more hasty sip of lemonade then rushed out into the garden again. At the far corner, to the right of the string quartet, there gleamed a device of copper and brass rearing up like the prow of a Viking ship. A dragon’s head, connected to another device inside a wooden box. Madelaine stood beside it, with Nurse Danforth looking on.
“Madelaine!” Constance called. “Madelaine, do come here!”
William caught up with Constance just as she was about to swoop down on Madelaine.
“Constance, please. Madelaine has just been explaining this to me. It’s quite ingenious, and it suits the theme of the party.”
“Isn’t it enough that you actually helped her trap that feral cat? I will not have Madelaine taxing the patience of our guests with one of her ridiculous inventions.”
“Constance, we are not in London. The old crones who watch over the debutantes during the Season are not here to start whispering rumors about Madelaine’s ‘unsuitable interests.’”
“If you understand that much, William, then surely you can appreciate my other concerns. I can’t allow our time here in Japan to change Madelaine so much!”
“Constance, I think you’d be very foolish to try and stop a process that’s already well underway.”
“This is not what one does at a proper British garden party. Don’t you see, William? This reflects on you as well!”
“If my daughter becomes known for her mechanical genius, I will gladly bask in the light of her inspirations.” He turned Constance around to face the metal dragon. “Now watch.”
Madelaine opened a brass valve in the top of the box, then picked up a large jug of what looked like soapy water. She poured it all into the machine, then sealed the valve. Curious guests drifted closer.
“In honor of the Blue Dragon Festival,” Madelaine said, “I have built this dragon. The Blue Dragon is one of the four guardians of Kyoto. Tradition tells us that the Blue Dragon is also one of the incarnations of Kannon, the Goddess of Mercy.”
Constance glanced over at the Abbot. Mr. Fujita translated Madelaine’s speech. The Abbot said something to one of the monks. Each monk took hold of one side of the chair and lifted it up, carrying it closer to Madelaine’s dragon and setting it down in the shade where the Abbot would have a good view.
“Pious legend says the Goddess of Mercy gathers up the sorrows of the world and feeds them to the Water Dragon.” Madelaine laid one hand on the metal dragon’s shining neck. “My dragon will show you what I like to think the Water Dragon does with the sorrows of the world.”
Madelaine bowed to the Abbot. He smiled and gave her a nod. Madelaine pulled a lever on the back of the dragon. The whirring of a large fan started up inside the wooden box. From the metal dragon’s mouth there poured a shining cloud of soap bubbles, bright with the glimmer of rainbows.
The spring breeze blew the clouds of bubbles across the garden. Constance watched, waiting for the first outcry as a soap bubble burst agai
nst expensive satin or taffeta. The cries of wonder turned to laughter as people caught the soap bubbles and poked them or blew them toward each other. The breeze sent more bubbles swirling around the Abbot. One settled on his outstretched hand. He studied the bubble for a long moment. It popped. The Abbot nodded, as if witnessing something profound.
“Look, Constance,” William murmured. “Look at what our little girl has created. Look at how happy she’s made all these people.”
Constance looked around her, at the British people in suits and gowns, at the Abbot and his monks in their robes. Eating and drinking and laughing and playing. Some of the men gathered around Madelaine’s dragon, pointing to parts of it and asking questions. Madelaine raised one side of the wooden box to reveal the dragon’s inner workings. Much nodding and pointing, more questions and answers.
All of Constance’s anxiety over the details of the party disappeared in a sudden surge of relief. The men who were interested in Madelaine’s work were too old for her, but some of them must have sons. The cat trap had removed a dangerous pest, and now this dragon added quite a unique feature to the garden party. Perhaps what Madelaine might miss during the Season in London, she could find here during the Spring in Japan.
Straight Flush
by Dover Whitecliff
Bloody amazing how easy it is to get yourself locked away for thirty days when your brother runs the largest syndicate on three continents. At least Briar saw to it that I was in with the too dangerous for general riffraff lot. Got room service, of a sort. Wasn’t the posh experience I’d hoped for, coming here to the city of glitter and glamour, let alone missing out on stuffing myself silly at the buffet without having Kyree nagging about keeping in fighting trim.
Took maybe five minutes from the bars slamming shut behind me to find Inarion Blue on the first day in. Still couldn’t think of him as Pascal Lovelace, boffin supreme. Not with those muscles. A quick brawl in the mud allowed for a conversation and the passing of the wild card. And then it was down to the waiting. No free rides inside the walls; everybody earned their keep. At least it helped pass the time.
I’d been maintaining my exo-suit, LUPA, since I was big enough to grab the hand grips, so it made sense that the warden would assign me to the machine shop. What didn’t make sense was the fact that instead of a combine to plow and harvest the rice paddies, they used a couple of clockwork yaks, which, since spring planting was done, I found myself overhauling.
I was draped half upside down over the yak and hip deep in gears when Blue finally clicked all the number combinations into place.
GONNNNNGGG!!!
My skull vibrated in the melodic and unholy clang that echoed round the cavity when Blue thwacked a spanner on the brass yak housing to get my attention. I lost my balance and my vision split into stars when I wrenched upward and slammed the back of my head into a piston. I fell off the yak in a manner unbefitting the three-time Terceran bantam weight exo-suit champion and landed hard on my ass.
I’ll say one thing for the eyepatch. It certainly cranks up the scare factor on the angry glare. Blue backed off, hands raised.
“Whoa. Sorry, Wolfy. Pax.” He offered me a hand, and pulled me to my feet, then prodded the back of my head with his fingers. “No blood. No foul. You’ll live.”
“Thanks, Doctor Blue.” I grabbed a rag from my back pocket and made a show of wiping the grease from my hands while I looked around. The shop guards had their eyes glued to the Dreadfulle Show. We had a few minutes at least. “So what’s their takedown?”
“The Opening Ceremony. We need to get to Su Chan So Lake. Sooner the better.”
“Wait. I saw the Grand Pavilion going up near the mooring yards when I came in. Lake’s miles away. Why there?”
“The wild card threw me off. Jacquard combinations are at least twenty years out of date. There’s only one Mechanical in a hundred miles that can read that card and it’s at the lake. They’re gonna use it to blow the dam. Tonight. Flood the opening ceremony with all those dignitaries around to blame each other for who did what.”
I whistled, playing it out in my head. Bold move. Just about every nation leaderless and all their juniors jumping at shadows. Great way to start a war. But what if — no, Blue wouldn’t pull something this crazy out of the air, and Fa would be representing Istavara at the ceremony, with Duncan Sarn bedridden. No way in the Void was I going to let Fa drown on my watch.
“Damn all. This isn’t the arena, Blue. No suits, no backup. Just you, me, and the best two brains on three continents.”
He smirked. “Best one and a half maybe. I got your back, Wolfy. Question is, can you get us out of here?”
“Leave it to me. I know somebody.”
Two brawls, a prison break that would dominate the aithercasts for a week, and a dreadful-worthy monocycle chase later, Blue and I lay flat on our bellies in stolen souvenir shirts peering over a low hummock of grass at Sparky’s Boardwalk.
“You’re serious. One of those can take out the Dai Sun Dam?” I stared incredulously at the Sea Serpents of Su Chan So. Never mind that they couldn’t be sea serpents in a land-locked lake. The submersibles were shudder-worthy. Ear fins, silly grins, serpentine necks that waggled, and chartreuse steam curling out of their nostrils, each sea serpent a more eye-popping color than the one before, and named by mothers with no taste. Their bodies were riddled with crys-glass viewports distorting the faces of riders waving at friends waiting on the dock.
Blue shrugged. “I can see why they’d want to blow them up.”
“You and me both, Blue. You and me both.”
“Looks like two crew each.”
“Pilot and attendant.”
“Pilot must be for more than hitting the start button. Lake’s too deep for tracks and they’re going too far out for the ticket booth to run the cycle remotely.”
“So. Two baddies switch out with the paid help. Right then. I’ll take the pilot, you take the attendant and find the whatsit and make it stop. Unless you think bashing the thing would work.”
“I’d have thought one bomb in the face was enough for you.”
“Point taken.”
“I count six rides. You?”
“A half dozen uglies it is,” I said, watching for the pattern. They left the first dock and sank down until only the wiggling ear fins stuck up above the surface. They paralleled the shore at a mediocre clip to a swirling spillway, sucking excess water from the lake to spit it out into the channel below the dam, surfaced, turned, skirted half the length of the dam above water, and then submerged again to give riders the fish-eye view. The rest of the circuit took them to the opposite shore maybe a mile away, rounded the lake, surfacing at three or four points in the circle, until they stopped at a second dock to spit out the riders before gliding forward to do it all again. And again. And again. Maybe a quarter turn of the glass round-trip. “So which one is it?”
“No idea. You got enough for six rides?”
“Opening ceremony is set for about an hour after sundown. We don’t have enough time for six rides.” Thoughts chased round my head as the sun slid lower behind the hills, painting the sky blue and purple and the clouds orange limned in gold. The lamps in the submersibles’ eyes began flickering on. Twilight. Nothing for it. Mr. Black Heart Pin was our only chance. “Be my eye for me.” I pushed up into a crouch.
“Say again?” Blue and I scrambled down to the path leading to the boardwalk. I closed my right eye and pulled off the patch to stuff it in my pocket.
“Don’t know if this will work. May split my head open. I’ll try not to mess up your shirt if it comes to sick.”
Blue looked down at the shirt adorning his chest, at the smiling sea serpent in a black and white bathing costume, straw boater, and goggles, and shrugged again. “I dunno. Might improve the look.”
We passed the families queued up waiting to see the lake bed from the fishes’ point of view and lounged between the fairy floss vendor and the ticket booth.
“Wait a tick, Wolfy.” Blue turned to face me, grabbed my left hand and put it on his waist.
“Oy!” I protested, and smacked his hand. He snorted.
“Use me for balance. And if I can see what your peeper is doing, I may be able to help you through.” He knew I knew he was right and he grinned. “Looks more natural, and if somebody gets nosy, I can plant one on ya.”
“Yeah, yeah.” I put my other hand on Blue’s shoulder. “Public displays of affection blah blah people nervous blah blah.” I turned toward the line of people clambering out of the hatch of a periwinkle and puce sea serpent with a brass name collar proclaiming it Sparklypuff. I hoped like the Void Blue didn’t notice my hands shaking.
Focus, Girl.
Took a deep breath. Opened my eye.
Like that short second when I strapped into LUPA and dove through the drop doors into open air, there was a moment of nothing. No fear, no jitters, nothing but me in the silence twixt heartbeats. And then the world exploded.
Images clashed like me and Blue in the arena, slashing at each other, each shouting for notice and giving anything and everything to dominate. Real sight. Symbols scrolling. Colors flickering. Light pulsing until real sight turned bright, then red with blobs of different color sauntering through bold as you please. Parts of a map overlaid with directions and Sparklypuff grinning at me through it all. “Too much. Too. Bloody. Much.” Everything threatened to upend. I felt wind and wet on my face. Blood pounded in my ears.
Then a voice whispered into the maelstrom. A familiar voice. “Talk to me, Wolfy. Talk to me.”
I grabbed onto it and pulled. Opened my mouth and something unintelligible fell out.
“Need more than that.”
Concentrate, Girl. He can’t sift through what he can’t see.
“Numbers, Wolfy. Do you see any numbers on anything?”
Real sight sparkled and hammers pounded on my head. Boom bada BOOM bada BOOM. “Can’t do this, Blue. Can’t.”
“You the She-Wolf or ain’t you? Don’t you dare close your eye on me, Wolfy. Don’t you dare. Focus. Numbers. Look for numbers. I need something to work with.”
Thirty Days Later: Steaming Forward: 30 Adventures in Time Page 21
