Clockwork Immortal

by Sam Ryan

  “The Trevelians have used some kind of weapon to destroy an entire forest, leaving devastation like we have never before seen in its wake,” Madilyn said, shifting her weight slightly. Simply talking about it seemed to make the knight nervous, which in turn made Max nervous. “Sophia is the only one who could possibly determine what they used and will be instrumental in bringing it back here, or in destroying it.”

  “Whoa,” Max gasped under her breath. This mission was turning out to be much larger than she would have ever thought.

  She could feel her chest tighten as the implications set in. A weapon that destroyed an entire forest? Surly Madilyn was exaggerating. She had heard of spells that could do a lot of area damage but they tended to be complex and hard to cast. And if they were being sent to investigate then such a simple explanation was probably not the cause.

  “So maybe now you understand our need for haste,” Madilyn said, stepping away from the rope she was latched onto. She moved up the steps to the upper deck towards Max. “Every day is another day they have to work and refine this new weapon. Whatever it is. And that is another day closer that they come to unleashing it on us or someone else.”

  Max nodded in understanding. Suddenly she was regretting she ever asked. She would have been happier that way.

  Sophia had finished stowing all of her belongings in the back of the cabin and had secured them so they did not slide around with the rocking of the ship. It was different than being on a sea vessel, but not so different in the end she supposed.

  “Well,” Sophia said to herself. She was laying down in the only bed that was nothing more than a small alcove with only about two feet of room between her face and the top. And Sophia’s legs were too long, forcing her to bend her knees to fit inside. “I am leaving Rouen. Be it not exactly how I had intended to, but leaving all the same.”

  Absently, Sophia flipped the page of the book that she had only partially been reading. She had figured it was important that she bring books for ‘reference’ purposes. Even if they were just some random books she had grabbed off her bookshelf. There was no book currently in print pertaining to Legendary Relics outside of supposition and speculation. Not that she would need them even if there was.

  Sophia wondered if she would ever actually return to Rouen. Even if she did, she doubted she would stay. No, this whole ordeal had convinced her that it was time to move on. Maybe give New Albion a try. It had been ages since she had been back there and she was interested to see how much it had changed.

  Her heart sank as she thought back to the last time she had left a city for good. She had visited a hospital right before leaving. She remembered that the light of the hospital was surprisingly bright, and almost cheerful. Odd considering the morbid tone of the situation.

  The woman Sophia had come to see was so old Sophia could hardly believe that she was the same person Sophia had cradled in her arms as a baby. It had seemed like yesterday that this old woman lying on the bed was a young girl full of life.

  Slowly, the woman opened her eyes and looked up at Sophia.

  “Mother.” Her voice was weak, the simple act of speaking seeming to be a tremendous effort for her. But while her voice was soft and barely audible her eyes were clear.

  “Hey there.” Sophia gave the woman a smile, leaning against the bed so she could reach over and stroke the old woman’s forehead, just like she had done so many time while tucking her in at night as a child. “Is the bed com-fortable? Are you warm enough?”

  “I thought I told you… I never wanted… to see you again,” the old woman wheezed, fighting for every word that she spoke.

  “Well, close your eyes then, and you won’t have too.” Sophia grinned.

  The old woman tried to laugh but coughed a little instead.

  “I am leaving this city,” Sophia stated, sitting down in the chair next to the bed, scooching the chair forward so she was as close as possible. “Not sure where I’ll go yet. Maybe find a nice quiet little town next to a river where I can live in obscurity. I doubt I’ll ever be coming back.”

  “In that case.” The old woman turned her head so she was looking into Sophia’s eyes. “Can I… have the house?”

  Sophia could not help but let out a laugh that quickly resembled a sob. She tried to hide wiping away a tear by acting like she was just rubbing her face. “You always could make me laugh,” she stated with a sniffle.

  “Dad always said I got my humor from you,” she smiled.

  “Yeah, but you got his eyes.” Sophia smiled, taking her daughter’s hand. “So I think he got the better end of that deal.”

  The old woman let out a long, labored breath. “Hey mum?”

  “Yeah sweetie?” Sophia leaned in closer so she could hear her better.

  “Be honest.” The old woman looked up at her mother. “How many brothers and sisters will be waiting for me?”

  A warm smile creeped across Sophia’s face, though it did little to mask the pain she was currently feeling. “Let’s just say, you and your father will never be alone.”

  “I was never… alone,” she stated with great effort on her part. “You were always with me.” She slowly raised her other hand and tapped her chest with a frail finger. “Right here.”

  The tears were falling down Sophia’s cheeks now.

  “Promise me… something.”

  “Anything,” Sophia said, instantly skootching forward in her chair a bit.

  “Cherish the time… you have.” Her breathing was becoming more lab-ored and the pauses between words became longer. “When your time draws near. You will always feel… that you didn’t have… enough time.”

  “I don’t think that applies to me honey,” Sophia chuckled through her tears. “I’m immoral. I’ll live forever.”

  “Nothing… is forever, mum,” the old woman stated. “Not even… you. So promise me.”

  “I promise,” Sophia said, clasping her daughter’s hand with both hands.

  “Good.” The old woman nodded, struggling to swallow. “Now go. I’m… tired. And I fear that if I close my eyes… I won’t… wake up again.”

  “Then I’ll stay with you until the end.” Sophia squeezed the old woman’s hand, trying to reassure her.

  “No.” She shook her head, her voice gaining strength. “No mother… should ever have to watch… their child die.”

  Sophia pursed her lips together. She did not want to leave her daughter’s side but she also did not want to watch her slowly fade away either. Finally she let go of her daughter’s hand and stood up.

  “Thank… you.” Sophia heard her daughter whisper as she walked out of the room.

  After closing the door behind her, Sophia pressed her back to the wall, wiping the tears away from her cheeks with her fingers.

  “Never again,” she promised. This was not the first time she had made that promise but she got the feeling that she would be able to keep it this time around.

  The sound of the cabin door opening snapped Sophia out of her waking dream. The book she had been reading propped up on her lap. It was still open to the same page that it had been an hour ago.

  “Sad book?” Madilyn asked, stepping inside the cabin.

  “What?” Sophia looked up at the knight and realized that her cheeks were wet. “Oh yeah.” She hastily wiped the tears away with her palm.

  Madilyn leaned to the side so she could see the book’s cover. “Steam and the power of flight?” She read out loud.

  “This part about the first airship taking off is very moving,” Sophia assured, sitting up in the bed as best she could without hitting her head. She reached behind her and adjusted her cane so the light was hitting the right spot for her to clearly read the pages. “The chamber pot is over there if that’s what you are looking for.” She pointed behind her at a brass bowl in the corner of the small cabin. Privacy was obviously never a consideration in this ships construction.

  “I’m actually here to talk to you,” Madilyn said, taking off her sa
ber and stowing it and her armor in the back corner, along with most of Sophia’s stuff. It was strange seeing her without her weapon but it was not like it would be of any use way up here. If anything, it could cause problems.

  Sophia closed the book and let it rest on her stomach, resting her fingers along the hard cover. She looked up at Madilyn and waited for her to speak.

  “It occurs to me that we may enter into some dangerous situations during this journey,” Madilyn stated.

  “Isn’t that why we have you here?” Sophia pointed out.

  “Yes, but I won’t always be able to protect you, and should conflict arise, it would do me good not to have to divide my attention by trying to protect you as well as myself.”

  Sophia had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. Sophia was confident that she could easily best this knight in any kind of combat, no matter how skilled she may be. But she did understand Madilyn’s reasoning, and if Sophia had been anyone else, she would have been right.

  “So what are you suggesting?” Sophia asked, already sure she knew what the knight had in mind.

  “Since we have some time before we reach the border, I felt we could use it to teach you some of the basics,” Madilyn stated. “We do not have much room to practice, but that could be for the best. Most fights tend to be close and personal anyway, so this will help you get used to that.”

  “Why do I get the feeling this is just an excuse so the pretty lieutenant doesn’t have you scrubbing down the deck?”

  Madilyn pursed her lips together, her eyes no longer making eye contact with Sophia. It would seem Sophia’s little jest had hit close to the mark.

  “Fine. I’ll do it. But answer me something first.” Sophia turned her body so she was on her side so she was better facing the woman standing before her. “How was a woman ever allowed to become a knight?”

  Madilyn took a deep breath, seeming to have been expecting this question at some point. “By yelling really loudly,” she said.

  Sophia raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to elaborate further.

  “The Whittlemore family has a long line of prestigious knights. My ancestors carved our land and title through valor on the battlefield. So when I demanded to be allowed to train as a knight, people were forced to listen, even if they disregarded it immediately after. Eventually, to shut me up, they had me duel a knight. If I won, then I would be allowed to train as a knight. If I lost, I was to never speak of it again. I was fourteen at the time and the knight I was to duel was a young man in his mid-twenties. He was no one special, as the others thought bringing in some famed knight would be a waste of time and would only sully their name.”

  “I take it you won,” Sophia stated, given that Madilyn was standing before her.

  “A stroke of luck on my part.” Madilyn placed her hands on her hips, puffing out her chest. “The practice sword the knight wielded seemed to have been a poor one. When our swords met, his broke and I took the opportunity to finish him off.”

  “It just up and broke, did it?” Sophia glared at Madilyn with a very suspicious look.

  “It did.” She gave a nod, her face perfectly expressionless. “And with my victory, the others were forced to train me. Not that they were happy about it, or easy in my training. They made me do things that no other squire had to go through, but I suffered through without a word of complaint. The way I saw it, the harder my training, the stronger I would be for it.”

  “And how exactly am I supposed to treat you?” Sophia asked, absently rubbing her cheek with her hand.

  “As you would any Knight of the Order,” Madilyn stated. “With the respect and courtesy that is due me.”

  “No, I don’t mean that.” She shook her head. “I mean personally treat you. Am I supposed to think of you like a man only with tits or…”

  “I do not see how that is any business of yours,” Madilyn stated.

  “It most certainly is if you think yourself a man and we’re going to be spending the next week on this tube,” Sophia pointed out. “I need to know if I should tie you up before I go to bed.”

  Madilyn let out a breath, staring down at the woman. “If you are asking if I think myself a man born into a woman’s body, the answer is no,” Madilyn stated. “Do I wish I was born a man? Yes. With all my heart. However I was not. And trying to make myself into something I am not will only hold me back. My time is much better spent dealing with my current limitations than wishing I was born with different ones.”

  Sophia stared at the woman for a moment, trying to see deeper into her, but she did not press the subject any further.

  “And what of you?” Madilyn asked.

  “What about me?”

  “When we first met, the first thing you did was grab my breast,” Madilyn stated. There was no embarrassment in her voice, she was merely stating a fact. Shame, Sophia would have liked to have seen her a little bashful. “And the way you have spoken to me and Max has been…” She paused for a second. “Slightly flirtatious in nature.”

  “I have been with both,” she confirmed with no hint of shame. “I honestly have no real preference either way. And you?”

  “I have been with women before,” she said, with a bit of a hesitant pause.

  “You don’t sound too proud of that fact,” Sophia said, noticing the slight shadow falling over Madilyn’s eyes.

  “During my time at the academy, men would often spend their nights out in the town and that would usually involve going to the brothels,” she explained. “I could either join them or I could stay at the barracks. Alone.”

  “And there is nothing worse than being left at home when everyone else goes out to play.” Sophia nodded in understanding. “And your squire?”

  Madilyn’s eyes narrowed at the question. “What about him?” she asked, a little defensive.

  “Well, I can’t imagine too many people are all that excited to be your squire,” Sophia said. “To the point that they would probably rather die.”

  “And they have said as much,” Madilyn said, clenching her fist. The frustration she felt did not seem to be directed at Sophia but more at the unfairness of world in general.

  “So I take it you and your squire have a special kind of relationship for him to trust you as he does,” Sophia pressed.

  “Benjamin is my younger brother,” Madilyn stated. “In a family of six we are the youngest. As I am the only girl, he had grown accustomed to treating me like a man long ago.”

  “So you have said that you have done it with a woman before.” Sophia shifted in the bed, looking at the stoic knight captain. “But the real question now is…” Sophia grinned devilishly. “Did you like it?”

  “Now that really is none of your concern,” she stated, pulling away slightly. “Now, I’ve answered your questions. So get up.” Madilyn beckoned at Sophia with her hand. “A week is not much time to learn how to fight and I would like to not waste any of it.”

  “Yes sir.” Sophia gave a lazy salute as she reached behind her and deac-tivated the magic in her staff before climbing out of the bed. “Just go easy on me. I am a beginner after all.”

  ***

  “There she is,” Max said, lowering the spyglass from her eye. “The border town of Elis. All trade between Lear and Trevelia has to go through here. Our ship will have to undergo inspecting by the Trevelian Military before they let us continue on.” She collapsed the spyglass in her palm and stowed it back in its compartment next to the helm.

  “Great,” Madilyn grumbled, crossing her arms as she stood at the bow of the airship, staring out into the distance at the approaching town. “And how long will an inspection take?”

  “A lot of that depends on the port inspectors,” Max stated with a casual shrug, hugging the wheel of the helm close to her body to keep the Trinket from drifting off course. “Our ship is small and isn’t carrying any high interest cargo, so it shouldn’t take long to inspect, but we will also be low in priority, so it could be a while until they even get to us.”


  “Maybe we should bribe someone to help expedite things.” Sophia was standing off to the side of Max, atop the upper deck. Her arms were entwined with the support ropes as she swayed back and forth with the rocking of the ship. “I’m sure we could charge that as a mission expense to the crown.”

  “We must do everything to make ourselves appear like normal mer-chants,” Madilyn declared, looking back at Sophia, a stern look in her eyes. “I will not do anything that will raise suspicion.”

  “Exactly why we should try to bribe them,” Sophia stated. “Who’s ever heard of a merchant who didn’t try to buy their way past an inspection? Or a soldier who didn’t take said bribe?”

  Max let out a snort of laughter and had to look down at the deck to try and contain herself. Madilyn did not seem nearly as amused by the jest and shot Sophia a death glare.

  “How worried are we about having our ship inspected?” Sophia asked, ignoring Madilyn’s evil stare.

  “Nothing in the design or make of the Trinket reveals it as a military vessel, and our cargo is supposed to be benign. So they shouldn’t find any problems with it. We have all the proper paperwork, so we should be fine unless you guys have something hidden on board that will tip them off.” She glared at both of them with a suspicious look.

  “I only brought books and clothes,” Sophia assured.

  “And my armor has no distinguishing marks on it signifying it as armor belonging to a knight or any kind of noble family,” Madilyn said. Her hand resting calmly on the hilt of her saber. She had been wearing it all morning as if she were expecting there to be trouble as soon as they arrived in Trevelia. “Anyone inspecting it will only see it as a fine, well maintained suit of armor.”

  “See,” Max grinned. “Nothing to worry about then.”

  “I wouldn’t go that far,” Madilyn said, letting out a breath. She turned so she was looking back at Max. “From here, how long will it take for us to get to New Dentin?”

  “Not long actually,” Max said, plotting the course in her head. “Probably about two days or so, if the weather holds. Is that our final destination?”