Ether & Elephants

by Cindy Spencer Pape

  “Remember Amy and Kendall went to Morocco last year?” Nell adjusted her gloves. “Amy and I are close to the same size, and in these boots, you can’t see that the skirt is an inch too short. What other alterations were needed, Eileen has accomplished on the airship and since we’ve been here.”

  “I didn’t think of that,” Tom admitted. Not that any of Kendall’s clothes would have fit him, even if he’d brought a tailor along. Tom was four inches taller, but only half as broad. “But then you’ve always been clever.”

  “Well, in this case, it was the dowager’s idea. She sent them over.” While Tom was a bundle of nerves, Nell appeared remarkably calm and collected. Her lips were a little puffy from the night before, and she walked with just a touch of stiffness, but her gaze was bright and focused. She frowned and said, “We have to get to the site and find the ruby before they do. But I’ve been wondering… What would a Buddha be doing at a temple to Jagganesh?”

  “I don’t know, but that may be the reason it hasn’t been found.” Tom had been over this with both Sir Vivek and the viceroy.

  “With respect,” said one of the soldiers, dark enough to be native, or at least half-caste, “something some people forget is that Bengal has changed hands many times. As new conquerors came in, temples were sometimes built right on top of old ones. What might have been a temple to one god in the middle ages might have been dedicated to another by the time the English came to India.”

  Tom and Nell shared a glance and Tom said to the soldier, “Excellent information, Sergeant.”

  The man dipped his head. “O’Malley, sir. Lived right here in Calcutta all my life. Another thing you should know is that the Eye of the Buddha is also called the Eye of Wisdom sometimes. So it might be some kind of symbol thing, not an actual eye.”

  “Which might mean they’ve been looking in the wrong places,” Nell mused. “And they can’t find it. Maybe that’s why they took Charlie. He finds things.” Her lip quivered and her eyes were wide and misty.

  Tom caught her hand. “And that means they might have had a good reason to keep him alive, more than just using him as another experimental subject. Hold on to that hope, darling.”

  “I have been. I just didn’t know why.” She leaned over and gave him an impulsive hug.

  The soldiers both smiled and looked away.

  Tom pulled out the brief the viceroy had sent with the soldiers and began to read. “Listen to this:Reports in the area of missing persons, of all castes except Brahmin. Several small holdings have been overrun, slaughtered, even burned. One man who survived a massacre described the bandits as having a soulless gaze, looking neither right nor left, responding to no cries, nor even injuries, just marching mindlessly onward, slaughtering everyone in sight.”

  Nell shuddered. “That sounds familiar, like something I’ve read about from the Americas. Voodoo, I believe it’s called. They claim to resurrect the dead as mindless servants called zombies.”

  Tom had heard of voodoo and zombies, but how had Nell? He cast her a sideways look.

  “I read a book for Charlie,” she told him. “Like so many small boys, he’s interested in everything spooky.”

  “Or he had some idea of what his parents were up to.” Tom hated that he couldn’t discount the idea. Young or not, Charlie might have been a willing participant, and that would break Nell’s heart.

  She snickered. “I think we’re safe on that count. He also wants to read every book I can find on vampyres, werewolves, trolls, elves, goblins, spacemen and sea monsters.”

  “So just a normal boy in that respect.” Tom hadn’t had a chance to be that kind of child—the streets of Wapping held no room for whimsy—but he’d watched it with Will and other Order offspring.

  “Exactly.” Nell wrinkled her nose. “If only more of those books were in Braille, so he could read them himself, I wouldn’t have to.”

  “Talk to Wink about that,” Tom said. “I’m sure she can come up with a way for her analytical engines to print out books in Braille.”

  Nell beamed. “Brilliant.”

  Beyond the dust cloud of the car ahead, they saw the looming walls of a fortress.

  “Good grief, is that Shanku?” Nell gaped at the expanse of the palace, surrounded by heavily fortified walls.

  “It is, miss.” Private Cortland, the other soldier, said. “I was barracked here for a while during the mutiny. Nice place, though I’d have killed for a good steak.”

  Tom gave the soldier a wry grin. “Better off in Calcutta, eh?” The English enclave was big enough to have cattle production without using workers from among the native population.

  Cortland piped in. “Aye. You get used to curry after a while, but the viceroy likes his beefsteak, and we benefit.”

  “My father lives here?” The closer they drew, the more impressive it became, with high, white marble walls and tiled rooflines.

  “Aye, miss. You’re a princess here.” O’Malley might have understood Nell’s situation better than she did herself. “You’d want for nothing inside that palace.”

  “Except a steak,” Cortland muttered.

  “Except that,” Nell agreed.

  Tom remembered the first time he’d seen Stonechase, the Devere family home which was now his. He hadn’t believed it, hadn’t understood how something so vast and beautiful could belong to one man, let alone that it would one day be his. While Nell wasn’t Vivek’s heir, she must be feeling something along those lines.

  They stopped inside the gates, since there was no road to the ruined temple. Tom and the soldiers would go ahead on some of Vivek’s fastest horses, while Nell and her father would double back to the train station to meet Pritchard and his investors, presumably the Alchemist and Polly, and if there was a God, Charlie as well.

  When they climbed out of the steam cars, two of Vivek’s servants ran to greet them.

  “More of the villagers are missing,” said one, after bowing to greet the nawab. “And one of the outlying plantations burned last night.”

  “Mount as many men as we can, on horseback or elephant.” Vivek switched to Bengali, barking orders as he strode into the palace, keep, or hall, or whatever the gleaming, onion-domed central building was called. Nell, Tom and the viceroy’s soldiers followed closely at his heels.

  Vivek’s demeanor hardened. His ramrod posture and commanding expression reminded Tom that Nell’s father was more than a tame landowner, but a powerful warlord in his own right.

  “Of course I want the cannons,” Vivek muttered in English to Tom. “Have you all grown soft and stupid since the rebellion? We are fighting for the lives of our own. Hook up the bloody guns!”

  Apparently his servants understood English, because they ran scurrying.

  Vivek paced the great hall of his palace. “We are not on the telephone here, I’m afraid. I can telegraph the viceroy, but we may not get help here in time if the bandit army is as big as my villagers are claiming.”

  “How many men do you have?” Tom considered his own ability to cast spells, but never before had he so wished for another Knight or two at his back.

  Vivek calculated, his lips moving. “Perhaps fifty altogether in the fortress. Another fifty or so from the villages we pass through. Most of them have fought before, in ’57. We have three cannons and twenty horses, plus ten to twelve elephants.”

  “You said you had an airship,” Nell said. “We could really use Wink right about now.”

  “A small one.” Vivek shot Tom a look. “Can you fly it? Jagganesh is the only one here who knows how.”

  Tom sighed. “I can manage,” he said. “It isn’t my specialty, but our sister Wink has taught me the basics.”

  “I can as well, sirs.” Private Cortland lifted one hand. “I’ve been in training to transfer to the Air Corps.”

  “Then you two drop me at the station,” Nell said. “I’m going to try to separate Charlie from his parents and run for it. I don’t want him anywhere near the temple.”

&nbs
p; “And I don’t want you anywhere near it, either.” Vivek glared down at Nell, hands on his hips. “You are to remain right here in the palace, young lady.”

  Tom stifled a snort. Nell’s father was about to learn a lot about the woman he called daughter.

  Nell drew herself up to her full five foot four inches and tapped the pointed toe of her boot. “Charlie is my student and someday my foster son, when both his so-called parents hang or go to prison. I will not abandon him to strangers.”

  “Think about it. There’s going to be a battle, possibly a big one. You don’t want to be there, Nelly.” Tom weighed the options. “I know, you don’t want the boy there, either, so here’s our plan. We go to the station, grab the boy, and bring him back here by airship. If we happen to capture Polly and the Alchemist, all the better, as we won’t have to deal with them while we fight their minions. Then I leave you and Charlie here to hold the fort, literally in this case, because the bandits could circle around and attack here, while Cortland and I take the airship down to the temple site.” His magick, flowing more freely than ever since he and Nell had become intimate, told him it was unlikely, but not out of the question.

  After a moment of pondering, Nell conceded. “Very well. Don’t forget Pritchard. We don’t know whether he’s one of them, or simply a dupe.”

  Tom turned to Vivek. “How many will your airship hold?”

  “No more than six men, although I think Nell and the boy will only count as one.” Vivek’s lips were pressed into a thin line. He turned to Nell. “Can you shoot?”

  Nell choked out a laugh. “Better than some professional soldiers. And don’t worry, I have my own pistol.” She patted the pocket of her trousers, showing a heavy shape strapped to her thigh. “My pocket and petticoats have a slit so I can draw it easily.”

  “Amy’s clothes, you said?” Tom rolled his eyes. “Why am I not surprised?” Of course the wife of a Knight would have access to a weapon in her adventuring gear.

  “Take Aadi and Rajit as well,” Vivek instructed. “They can hire horses or elephants at the station and ride to the temple if you bring back prisoners.”

  Both the butler and the captain of the guard bowed. “We will protect the princess with our lives,” the butler told his lord.

  While Vivek and the others prepared the horses and elephants, Nell, Tom, the two servants and the two soldiers prepared the airship, O’Malley having decided he was sticking with his team. Surely the six of them would be able to overpower three villains and rescue a boy.

  Within the half hour, they were in the ether.

  * * *

  Pritchard’s train was due just shortly after Nell and the others arrived at the station. They managed to hide the small airship behind a nearby barn, but only just. Finally, the soldiers made arrangements to hire elephants, then took various places around the platform, with some reading newspapers and the two servants playing dice. Nell and Tom waited in plain sight, prudently keeping their backs to the wall of the station.

  At precisely noon, the whistle of a train heralded the arrival of the massive steam engine pulling a half-dozen cars, one for passengers, the others freight.

  As Tom and Nell watched, six people stepped off the train. One elderly couple wandered off arm in arm, and a single man in a Western business suit with a newspaper tucked under his arm scurried off toward a parked steam car.

  That left Pritchard, a portly man of perhaps fifty and a woman about Tom’s age, with brassy yellow hair and a haggard expression.

  “Damn, but Polly has aged,” Tom whispered, his breath warm on Nell’s ear.

  “And the man—is that her supposed father?” There was no sign of Charlie and her heart filled with fear.

  Tom grunted. “Aye.”

  “Get the boy out here,” Polly called. “Professor Pritchard, won’t you introduce us to your friends?”

  “Of course.” Pritchard strolled over and offered Nell his arm. She took it with the one that wasn’t hovering just above the slit in her skirt. When she saw Charlie being dragged from the carriage by an Indian servant, her head went light and she stumbled.

  He’s alive!

  Nell wrenched herself from Pritchard and ran for Charlie, shouting his name. Behind her, she heard Tom bellowing hers but she didn’t turn.

  “Miss Nell!” Charlie threw himself into Nell’s arms just as she heard the click of a pistol cocking next to her left ear.

  “Stand up and let go of the boy.” Pritchard’s voice was cold as ice. So much for thinking the professor was just a dupe. “If you behave, I won’t be forced to shoot you.”

  Nell stood, but Charlie refused to release her hand. It was funny how his touch gave her strength. Carefully not glancing about for any of her other protectors, instead she looked Pritchard up and down, studying him like the insect he was, subtly trying to tuck Charlie behind her.

  “Is your research so pitiful that you’re forced to take funding from mad scientists?”

  Pritchard laughed, but the gun in his hand didn’t waver a bit. “My research goes well beyond this little hellhole, you interfering witch. It’s I who pay them, not the other way around.”

  “You’re the Alchemist.” Her gaze flew over to meet Tom’s, which registered shock followed by resignation. They should have guessed that rather than suddenly becoming a genius, Barclay, or Berrycloth, or whatever, had merely found a better scam—procuring bodies for Pritchard’s experiments.

  “Such a lovely epithet,” Pritchard said. “I’ve been proud of that one since the first time your people used it, when I was working on the cure for black lung.”

  “That was you? Using children to test your formulas.” Nell remembered how little Ivy had nearly died, and how when she hadn’t, Pritchard’s partner in that research had tried to kidnap her.

  “Of course it was. If I could have perfected that cure, I’d have become the richest man in England, probably the world. My lead-to-gold formula worked, but the process was so lengthy and expensive that there was barely any profit, even with using the discarded children as miners. But now, oh, now I’m onto something much more lucrative.” He looked around the train platform and jerked his head toward his associates. “We need to get somewhere less public. Go fetch the elephants. And someone get me something to tie this bitch’s hands, as well as her so-called brother over there.”

  With a gun pointed at her head, Tom was helpless to do anything foolish, just as she didn’t even have time to sing and compel them to drop their weapons. One of them would have a chance to fire before the compulsion penetrated his will. Tom handed Polly his weapon. “Great to see you again, wife.” There was more venom in that last word than Nell had ever heard him use.

  “You stupid sod.” Polly laughed while she used her own scarf to tie Tom’s hands. Her husband disappeared around the side of the station where the elephant paddock stood. Once Tom was secure, she knocked him over the head with his own pistol.

  Nell cried out as Tom slumped unconscious to the ground, and she cursed violently as Polly moved over to tie Nell’s hands with the scarf from around Nell’s neck, then used Charlie’s necktie to secure his as well.

  “He really should have been out of the way by now. A pity the snake didn’t do its job,” Pritchard said with a bored yawn.

  The husband reappeared with three elephants, each wearing what looked like a small coach on its back. A howdah, she’d learned, and the ones on these animals were workmanlike wicker, not the fancy ceremonial ones she’d seen in Calcutta. Though probably designed for one, each basket would easily hold two people.

  Nell took a second look and had to fight a sigh of relief. While the servant led one of the elephants, the other two were led by Vivek’s men, who wore robes similar to the other guides, or grooms, or herders they’d seen in town. That had to be a great indignity, since she was sure they’d dropped a couple of caste levels when they’d changed clothes. If they were here, that left the two soldiers to follow and help. Nell liked those odds.

>   “Only two men.” The Alchemist’s servant spat on the ground. “All the others have run off. I will steer, sahib.”

  “Very well.” Pritchard gestured toward the animals. “Polly, take the boy with you. Barrow, take his high-and-mightiness there, and don’t be afraid to shoot him if he causes trouble. Nosy Miss Hadrian is coming with me.”

  “We have to ride those…things?” Polly shuddered.

  “What did you think when I said we’d travel by elephant?” Pritchard motioned to his servant, who somehow managed to make one of the elephants kneel and dragged a set of wooden mounting steps over beside the howdah.

  “I thought they’d be pulling a carriage or something,” Polly grumbled. “That can’t be safe all the way up there.”

  Pritchard nudged Nell’s nape with the snout of his gun. “Get in, Miss Hadrian. Time for that tour I promised you. Now no tricks, or I won’t hesitate to kill Sir Thomas.”

  “Delighted, I’m sure.” She marched up the steps and let the servant help her into the basket seat since she couldn’t use her hands. Once she was in, he climbed in beside her, the weapon balanced on the wicker armrest between them. The servant, Kumar, took his place on a small pallet right near the elephant’s neck.

  Then she watched helplessly as Aadi and Rajit carried an unconscious Tom into one of the others, dumping him on the floor of the howdah, while Barrow, as Pritchard called him, climbed into the seat and rested his feet on Tom’s back.

  Nell swore she was going to kill that man herself, and before the day was over. Rajit took the driver’s place, while Aadi continued over to assist Charlie and Polly onto the final animal, plopping himself down on the pallet with the same small crop the other drivers carried.