by S. S. Engle
THE
PYRETTE QUEEN
AND THE
GUILLOTINED
GEARMASTER
“IF EVERYTHNG IS SO TERRIBLE,
THEN WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE?”
- NATASHA
1
In the library of the old abandoned palace, Blue was slumped over himself with his hands cuffed behind his back to the center pole of the spiral staircase. Luca and Jasper had pulled his unconscious body into that position overnight, and that was now six hours ago. Dreadcrank had secured a doctor with some of Kassidy’s stolen money from the O’Brien treasury, and Harlan was put up in the best hospital with the best security. He was going to be just fine. Kassidy was going to go visit him the following night to try and draw less attention. At the moment, she was busy overseeing the negotiations to come between Blue and Luca. Blue’s pale face was swollen from forehead to chin, complete with two black eyes, a crooked nose, and a sore if not dislocated jaw. Luca’s mechanical hand was unscathed from the beating, but his white gloved hand was stained with Blue’s blood, and possibly his own. While laying down on her stomach on an ugly red rug, Luca was using the small of her back as a pillow. She was concerned with the lack of medical treatment he had taken for himself, and with some effort on her part she was able to peacefully negotiate the removal of his glove from his hand. Mutilated by the fire from their childhood Luca was quick to remove his hand from sight, but Kassidy wouldn’t have it. She had better reflexes than he did, and gripped her hand around his melted skin before he could get far enough away from her. He laid his head back down on her lower back and sighed deeply. Blue still wasn’t awake, and the sun was cracking through the broken boards over the windows, making rainbows shine up on the ceiling and the empty bookshelves from the shattered glass on the floors.
“You didn’t think we’d make it through the night, did you Luca?”
“I have to admit, there were times I had my doubts.”
“And now?”
“I know I can’t stay in this city any longer.”
“Not this again.”
“I’m serious!”
“That’s what bothers me.”
“I’ve still got a couple hundred men in my ranks. I have to put their needs and safety above my own.”
“What’s your plan, fearless leader? Where will you take them?”
“There’s a home for us on Rusten Island. Come with me.”
“I can’t believe you’re asking me this.”
“Please sweetheart!”
“Of course I’m coming with you! If you think you can just leave me behind again while you go flying off to safety, you’re in for a rude awakening.”
“What about all that honor talk of standing your ground and not turning your back on the city?”
“There are more ways to fight than by standing your ground. Sometimes you need to get a new perspective and attack form a different angle. I’m not really leaving the city by going to Rusten Island. And I’m not turning my back on anyone.”
“You have no idea how happy you’ve made me by joining me this time.”
“This is all of course assuming you can negotiate a deal with Blue about giving the Lydia back to us. Without her I don’t know how we could pull any of this off.”
“Oh, trust me, Blue will give her back to us. He won’t have a choice.”
“He won’t leave empty handed Luca. You’ll have to give him something in return. I know what he came here for. I’m not leaving with him.”
“You won’t be any part of my dealings with Blue. I couldn’t do that to you. Only Asa deals with people as if they are objects. Look where that’s gotten him.”
“The sole leader of a fear stricken city for nearly twenty years.”
“All leaders fall. I’ve done enough reading to know that. The higher the pedestal they build for themselves, the farther they crash to reality. This struggle has been a slow burn, a long time coming, but it’s about to reach its climax. When Asa falls now, all of Engia will fall with him. It’s what has to be done.”
“And where does that leave the Dreadcranks?”
“We will live to see him fall.”
“Or die trying. And what about all of the innocent people downtown? What about the people that support our cause that live on the streets? What’s to become of them if we leave?”
“They will be witness to a glorious end. I’ll do everything I can to protect them. But far more anti-Ringer, anti-O’Brien, and anti-rich supporters live on Rusten Island already. They’ve been living in exile for years, waiting for this moment. I won’t let them down.”
“And while you’re fighting the good fight for all of these oppressed and downtrodden, who will be looking out for you?”
“You, if you want the job. My father was your father’s first mate, his right hand. Now my right hand may look a little rough, but it still does the job. What’s a Ventimiglia without their von Detten?”
“You would have me on the front lines, by your side?”
“I would, but it’s your choice in the end.”
“I thought you would have wanted to hide me away somewhere to keep me safe.”
“I know you too well to think you wouldn’t want a piece of the action. You’re not the sitting, damsel in distress type. That what I like about you. You want to get your hands dirty, you practically demand it. So, if you’re going to be in danger anyways, I’d prefer for you to be in danger right beside me, so if something were to happen, I could stop it.”
“You can’t stop everything Luca.”
“That doesn’t mean I won’t try.”
Luca pulled Kassidy’s hand up to his lips and lingered a kiss on the back of her hand. Her black fingerless gloves smelled of iron, and he clinched his eyes closed at the thought of what was to come. She squeezed his hand tight, and he returned the gesture with a sliver of a smile appearing on his face. But the moment didn’t last long. A choking cough came from the staircase, and alerted them that Blue had finally woken up. The pair rolled off the floor and onto their feet with cold stiffness from a long night awake. Blue was slow to catch on that he was cuffed to the staircase, but once he realized it he began to moan. Kassidy came into his focus first, with Luca protectively not far behind. Blue was still hacking, spitting up chunks of blood and mucus. Kassidy crouched down a few feet away from him and gave him a silent once over. When she nodded, Luca crouched down beside her and she stood up, keeping her place at his side with her fingertips dangling across his shoulder. As Luca brought both of his arms up to rest on his knees Blue took an instinctive shift back against the pole. Luca snickered and Kassidy watched the fear spread across Blue’s face. It was an expression so foreign to her she couldn’t quite get herself to look away. It made him appear terribly normal and far less dangerous than she knew him to be. He would have scar on his face forever from scrapping with Luca the night before. The gears of his fingers had left tracks across Blue’s pale skin that was now various shades of purple and yellow. Kassidy reached up to her own gash that had scarred across her cheek, and trailed her fingers down the groove. Flashes of Blue’s ring striking her still burned in her mind. She felt guilty for not being able to feel any shred of remorse for her fiancé. It just wasn’t in her. As Luca began his interrogating she played up her antics to make the negotiations go smoother. She sat down on the ground beside Luca, rather than stand above the scene as an outsider. Then she placed her hand on Luca’s forearm, just above his visibly burned hand that he’d left ungloved.
“This can go one of two ways Blue. You can either give me what I want now, and I let you walk out of here with what dignity you still
have…”
“Or what?”
“Or I beat you some more until you see the error in your ways. And judging by how stubborn I know you to be, you better pick the first option if you want any of your face left recognizable. I got a fake fist Blue, I can hit you all day long and not feel a thing. Ball is in your court now, what are you going to do with it?”
“I’ve never cared much for recreational sports Lucky. You know that.”
“Then hand over the Lydia, and I’ll have my men personally escort you down into the streets.”
“You can’t expect me to walk out of here empty handed, now do you?”
“I’m letting you walk out of here alive. Doesn’t your life mean anything to you?”
“Not as much as it used to.”
“You can take your eyes off of her. She isn’t going anywhere with you!”
“I know she’s not! She’s made her decision. But what’s a man to do? He wants what he wants.”
“Then want another girl Blue.”
“She’s my fiancé Lucky! Until death parts us, she will be bound to me whether she likes it or not. I shall never relinquish that hold on her. But I am still man enough to recognize it is not me she has chosen. However, nobody in this room, or palace for that matter, makes the rules here. The man in question whose opinion rules all is Asa’s. He wants Kassidy. As being asked with returning her to the mansion, I can’t go back without her and the Lydia.”
“What are your terms Blue?”
“Mercy.”
“Mercy? Letting you live is mercy. For what you’ve done to my men I’d kill you right now if I had the proper audience.”
“You have Kassidy, what other audience matters?”
“She stays out of this.”
“How is that even possible? Doesn’t she deserve a say in what happens to her?”
“I choose to leave this city with Luca. My place is, and always has been with the Dreadcranks.”
“Asa won’t like hearing that.”
“I don’t give a damn what Asa thinks! He does not own me despite him having his hands choking off the opinions of everyone else in this city!”
“To go back and tell Asa that you refuse him would put me in a very precarious situation. And I won’t do that to myself.”
“You wouldn’t even do it to protect me?”
“Haven’t you grown tired of manipulating my weakness for you?”
“My manipulation of you knows no bounds.”
“I’m learning that slowly. Perhaps you tell Asa yourself then that you refuse him?”
“The last time I was in that mansion I found myself clinging to the ledge of a fifth story window. So, excuse me if I’m not jumping at the chance to go back.”
“Asa always gets what he wants Kassi. It’d just be easier to give in, and in time you could learn to love a new life.”
“The privilege he thinks he has over the will of the people in Engia is running on borrowed time.”
“You’d like to believe that.”
“I do believe it.”
“Why? Because that’s what Luca fed to you?!”
“Because of this!”
“A knife?”
“Asa’s knife, given to me by Asa himself. The very knife he used seventeen years ago, to kill my father because the bullet he shot wouldn’t do the trick, and the fire that was set would not be enough to take the glory away from the O’Brien’s. This knife will take one more life before I am done with this city. But it’s not yet time for that. Almost.”
“And what would you have me tell Asa as I drag my sorry self back to the mansion empty handed? Lacking both you and the Lydia, I have to go back with something.”
“You can tell Asa that he will only win an audience with me if I can watch him dig his own grave with that silver spoon he was born with.”
“That makes for a very vivid mental picture.”
“I had hoped it would.”
“While as moving as that is, it’s not enough. Luca, I told you mercy was my terms.”
“Explain your mercy then Blue.”
“You take Kassidy, take your entire gang, put them on the Lydia and take them to that infernal Rusten Island the exiles call home.”
“That only benefits me.”
“No, it benefits us both. With Kassidy out of the city I know she’ll be safe. Asa will take it out on me, but he won’t kill me. I have too much respect among the Ringers. He’d lose control of them once they learned of my death. And if he lost the Absynthe Ring he’d lose the city. He wants Kassidy to himself, but not at the cost of Engia. And call me selfish, but I’m still a man. I can’t very well turn over my own fiancé to my boss. I’d rather see her alive with you then dying with him. Either way, it’s not my arms she’ll fall into at night.”
“This seems like a very one sided deal Blue. What’s the catch?”
“No catch. You just have to promise me that you keep Kassidy the hell out of Engia! Asa will burn the streets for her. I will go without her for her safety. That’s my sacrifice. You must live with realization that Asa is going to hunt you down, and everyone you know will be put in danger for you taking her away. He will never stop Lucky. Never!”
Kassidy squeezed Luca’s forearm, and for the first-time Luca pulled his eyes away from his rival. Negotiations were over. Blue barely had any fight left in him anymore. It was demoralizing to witness, but not at all unheard of given the circumstances. It was to be expected that reality would eventually catch up with him and weigh down heavily on his conscious. He couldn’t deny it forever. Luca pulled the keys for the handcuffs out of his pocket and fidgeted with them in his hands. Blue’s eyes were magnetically drawn to his little piece of freedom, like a starving dog is to a crap of food. Kassidy took the keys out of Luca’s hands and went to release Blue herself. There was no funny business, no attempts to turn the tides. It would all be in vain if he had. Instead he rubbed his raw wrists and wrapped his arms around himself. It was drafty with all the broken windows and the early morning chill. The breeze was blowing in off of the ocean with the moist and humid air. Blue couldn’t get warm, and while he wasn’t shaking on the outside, his body was rattling to his bones on the inside. Just as promised Luca had a group of six Dreadcranks escort Blue out of the back of the palace and down into the streets. All the while he stood watch with Kassidy tucked into his side at the top of the hill in the front courtyard. Broken gilded flames that used to adorn the roof were scattered in pieces all around them. Blue finally felt what it was like to truly lose, and he felt so hollow.
Once Blue was out of sight preparations were made to load the Lydia full of supplies. Anything not completely broken or shattered was carried onto the airship posthaste. As scoured as the palace was, it didn’t take much time or effort at all. With everyone so focused on getting away, injuries seemed to be put on hold. Exhaustion just blew away in the increasingly steady winds. Kassidy oversaw counting the men on board and making sure everybody had their jobs assigned to them. Luca was the last out of the palace that morning. With the sun now sitting boldly on the horizon the Lydia was released from its mooring on the roof. Luca charted a course for Rusten Island, one of the few places in the vicinity of Engia that Kassidy had never been to. It only sat seventeen miles off the city, chained to the foundation of Engia like a prisoner to their cell. But Rusten Island was hardly a prison. An oasis like island with waterfalls careening off its outer edges like a dream land. Free of the corruption that Asa held so near and dear to his heart. Times were still hard for the exiles living
there, but there was a peace that Kassidy had never known before. Standing beside Luca at the helm he pulled her in close between himself and he wheel to watch her childlike awe at this new step in her life. She’d finally let go of her inhibitions and trusted him enough to run away with him. He wasn’t about to take that for granted. It’d only been an hour in the air, and when the Lydia pulled in to dock at the airfield, a huge crowd of supporters were pushing each other over t
o get a chance to see the Dreadcranks up close.
“Luca, there’s so many people here!”
“I told you we had more friends than enemies.”
“And they’re all willing to help us?”
“Asa has hurt too many people over the years. People in all walks of life. I met a man here last time with the blueprints for Engia.”
“The blueprints?”
“Made by the gearmaster himself.”
“You’ve seen them?!”
“I have. My confidence is not unfounded sweetheart. I would have never taken you here if I wasn’t completely sure this was the right thing to do.”
“Just what is it that we’re going to do here?”
