Shadows of Asphodel

by Karen Kincy

  “Careful!” the archmage called out. “There’s a lot of voltage over there.”

  Her hand clamped on Chun Yi, though she was pretty sure a sword wouldn’t be any good against high-voltage electricity. She felt completely out of her element around so much mysterious technology and magic. They walked deeper into the laboratory at a brisk pace. Then she saw the reason for the high ceiling.

  The automaton.

  It stood against the wall, seven feet tall, its steel carapace gleaming like a suit of plate armor for a giant. The automaton had no face, and she could see inside its hollow head. There was what could only be a cockpit inside.

  Her stomach tightened with equal parts unease and excitement.

  “Ardis!”

  She knew that voice. She spun around and looked straight at Diesel. He stood there, quietly, and wore a white coat like everyone else in the laboratory. He dabbed the sweat from his brow with a handkerchief.

  “Dr. Rudolf Diesel.” She shook her head. “I thought I would never see you again.”

  His mustache twitched with a smile.

  “We parted under unusual circumstances,” he said.

  “Circumstances I regret.”

  That night on the Dresden wasn’t her fault, but she still didn’t imagine being drugged, dumped overboard, and abducted had been pleasant.

  Diesel licked his lips, then sidestepped nearer. “Ardis,” he muttered. “I’m worried.”

  She stared at him. “About?”

  “Project Lazarus is powerful. I shudder to think of that power in the wrong hands.”

  A shiver crawled down her spine. She didn’t know what to say. She hadn’t even seen these automatons in action yet.

  Konstantin stepped forward, his hands clasped behind his back.

  “Sorry to interrupt, Dr. Diesel,” he said, “but we are rather pressed for time. Do you know who has the second prototype?”

  Diesel glanced between them. His eyes glinted with curiosity.

  “Archmage Carol,” he said. “Yet another flaw in the leg pneumatics, though she should be finishing the repairs as we speak.”

  Konstantin winced. “I had hoped we might borrow both of them.”

  “Borrow?” Diesel said.

  “Both?” Ardis added. “Don’t we only need one automaton?”

  “True.” Konstantin cocked his head. “We can’t operate more than one at a time, not with the interference, but we can power up two to triangulate his position. Otherwise we will be working with much less accuracy.”

  Diesel clucked his tongue, then met the archmage’s eyes.

  “May I ask who you want to find?” he said. “And why you rewired the control systems for both of the automatons?”

  “Ah,” Konstantin said. “Well.”

  Ardis cleared her throat. “Unusual circumstances.”

  Diesel stepped back and held up his hands.

  “Then I will stay out of your way,” he said.

  “Thank you.” Konstantin blew out his breath, and smiled tentatively. “If you wouldn’t mind finding Archmage Carol…?”

  Diesel nodded. “Might as well stretch my legs.”

  He tucked his handkerchief in his pocket and trudged down the length of the laboratory.

  Konstantin glanced back at Ardis.

  “Good,” he said, nodding. “Ready?”

  “Ready to what?”

  He smiled like she might be joking. “Pilot the automaton, of course.”

  Ardis froze, staring into the automaton’s hollow metal head. Konstantin clapped her on the shoulder and steered her closer.

  She stiffened her legs. “Why can’t you pilot the automaton?”

  “Because I need your help,” he said. “And I’m a bit too tall for the prototype. My legs cramp if I stay in there for too long. Uncomfortable and unproductive. Though the final automatons will be much bigger.”

  Much bigger? Ardis arched her eyebrows. Clearly seven feet tall wasn’t tall enough.

  She sighed. “Technically, I have to take orders from you.”

  “Excellent!”

  Konstantin rubbed his hands together. Humming, he hurried to the automaton and unlatched a metal door in the chest, revealing the pilot’s chair inside the cockpit. Ardis unbuckled Chun Yi’s scabbard from her belt, and when she touched the sword, she felt a boost of courage. She stared up into the automaton.

  Konstantin hovered by her side. “Here, let me give you a hand.”

  “Thanks,” she said.

  The archmage grasped Ardis at the waist and boosted her into the cockpit. She twisted around and lowered herself into the seat. She found boots to slide her feet into, and articulated metal gloves for her hands.

  “Now for power,” Konstantin said. “The ignition should be near your left shoulder.”

  “Inside the automaton?”

  “Yes. Twist the key.”

  Ardis pressed her chin to her chest to peer inside the cockpit. Right over her heart, she found a slot with a key. She slipped her right hand from the metal glove. The key turned with a click, and the automaton shuddered to life. A deep rumbling vibrated through the steel and reverberated through her chest.

  Konstantin danced back and raised his hand. “Carefully, now!”

  Ardis flexed her fingers, and the automaton’s metal fingers clinked together. When she raised her arm, the automaton’s arm swung upward. Power hummed through the giant metal body, and she was its puppeteer.

  She waved at him. “How is this?”

  “I’m impressed.” Konstantin laughed. “You have a real knack for that.”

  Another archmage came running down the laboratory, her white coat billowing behind her in the wind of her speed. She had the lean look of someone who never stopped moving for long, and she glanced between them with a grin.

  Konstantin waved at her. “Archmage Carol!”

  “Found a better test pilot?” Carol said.

  Better? Ardis hoped the last one hadn’t met a sticky end.

  Konstantin nodded. “She will be helping us today. Is the other prototype ready?”

  Carol waved them onward. “Come and see for yourself.”

  Archmage Carol jogged down the laboratory, and Konstantin hurried to follow. She easily outpaced even his long strides.

  “What about me?” Ardis called.

  Konstantin glanced back. “Walk!”

  Oh. Of course.

  Clenching her jaw, Ardis took a tentative step forward. The automaton’s massive metal foot swung forward and clunked on the floor. She worried it might be unsteady, but it seemed to borrow her sense of balance. Another step. Then another. After only three lumbering strides, she had already caught up with Archmage Carol.

  “That’s it,” Carol said. “Nice and slow.”

  “Slow?” Ardis laughed. “How fast is this thing when it runs?”

  “The prototype is twice as fast as your average soldier.”

  “Wow.”

  “The technomancy in our automatons,” Carol said, “combines the speed and strength of the machine with the skill of the pilot. The pneumatics aren’t always flawless, though. That’s what happened to the next prototype.”

  They reached the far end of the laboratory. The second automaton lay on its back on a massive flatbed trolley. The metal plate on its shin had been removed, revealing the gleaming oiled innards of the automaton’s leg.

  “Konstantin?” Carol said. “When do you need this up and running?”

  Out of breath, Konstantin caught up with them. He shook his head, then tugged his goggles down over his eyes.

  “Not literally up and running,” he said. “Powered should be sufficient.”

  Carol leaned over the trolley. She turned the key in the ignition, and the automaton rumbled to life. Lying flat on its back, it purred with a low hum that echoed inside Ardis’s automaton and sent a thrill down her spine.

  Maybe, after this was over, she should spend more time down in the secret laboratory.

  “Wait!” Ko
nstantin said. “Did you disconnect the control systems from the pneumatics?”

  “Obviously.” Shaking her head, Carol looked sideways at him. “Otherwise I would never run both prototypes at once.”

  Ardis raised her hand. “I’m guessing the interference is bad? Very bad?”

  Carol nodded with a grim smile.

  “Nearly lost one of our pilots,” she said, “before we figured out why.”

  Konstantin clambered onto the trolley and scooted into the cockpit of the automaton.

  “That’s why we need Wendel,” he said.

  Ardis clomped forward, towering over him, and waited. He fiddled with something inside the second prototype, then crawled back out and leapt down from the trolley. He ran to a workbench and grabbed a notepad and a brass instrument that resembled a pocketwatch, though the dial clearly didn’t measure minutes.

  “But now,” he said, “interference will be our friend!”

  Konstantin climbed onto the trolley and pried open a panel in the automaton’s chest. He clipped the instrument to a wire inside the hulking machine and stared at the dial. He jotted down notes, his pencil scratching furiously.

  “Archmage Carol?” he said. “How far is it to the other end of the laboratory?”

  She shrugged. “Two hundred meters, exactly, if you start at that mark on the floor.”

  “Exactly?”

  Carol laughed. “They didn’t build me a track to test the speed of the automatons, so I measured one out myself.”

  Konstantin stared at her like she had given him all his Christmas presents early.

  “Perfect!” He pointed at Ardis. “Walk to the other end of the laboratory.”

  “Yes, sir,” she said.

  Ardis marched down the laboratory. The archmages followed in her footsteps.

  “According to my initial reading,” Konstantin said, “we should be looking about seven kilometers southwest of here. So with a baseline this small, our triangulation will be primitive. But it should be better than nothing.”

  When they reached the other end of the laboratory, Konstantin halted Ardis.

  “Let me take another reading,” he said.

  The archmage clipped the pocketwatch lookalike to a wire within the guts of the automaton, took notes on the reading, and then leaned over a table. He scribbled a page of mathematical computations, frowned at the numbers, and scratched his head with his pencil. Carol stood watching with crossed arms.

  “Never liked trigonometry,” Konstantin muttered.

  Carol leaned over his shoulder. “Need help?”

  He curled his arm around the paper and dragged it closer protectively.

  “I need a map of Vienna,” he said.

  With a bemused smile, Archmage Carol nodded and sprinted away. She returned a few minutes later with a rolled map.

  “Thank you,” Konstantin said, and he snatched the map from her.

  He spread the map on the table. With his tongue poking from his mouth, he sketched out a few points over the city. He circled one of the points, then lifted the map to show them both. He jabbed the pencil at the map.

  “There,” Konstantin said. “South of Vienna, in the town of Liesing.”

  Ardis shook her head. “What’s in Liesing?”

  “An industrial area.” He frowned. “A lot of factories. Abandoned, under construction. They could be keeping Wendel anywhere.”

  Ardis caught his gaze. “Then we should start looking.”

  ~

  Under cover of darkness, they drove from the Academy of Technomancy with a questionably borrowed truck and an even more questionably borrowed automaton. With Konstantin behind the wheel, Ardis sat shotgun with her sword across her knees. She kept glancing in the side mirror at the bulk in the back.

  “Are you sure you tied down the tarp?” she said.

  “Ardis,” Konstantin said, “for the nth time, I’m sure. They won’t see us coming.”

  She clenched her fingers around the scabbard.

  “The Grandmaster is meeting with Margareta tonight,” she said. “This is it, Konstantin. We don’t have time for mistakes.”

  “I don’t intend to make mistakes.”

  “Then you might want to double-check the tarp.”

  “Ardis!”

  Konstantin looked sideways at her, and she glared at him. He softened his voice.

  “We won’t let them take Wendel,” he said.

  She stared straight out of the windshield and tried to ignore the stinging in her eyes. Waiting never satisfied her.

  “How much farther?” she said.

  “Twenty minutes,” he said. “Twenty minutes, and then we can find him.”

  She nodded and counted down in silence.

  “And remember,” Konstantin said, “be extremely careful with the automaton. We only have two prototypes, and we have to bring this one back in one piece. I don’t want a single dent or scratch on it. Do you swear?”

  “I swear,” Ardis said. “I won’t scratch your precious automaton.”

  A corner of his mouth tugged into a crooked smile.

  They left behind the glittering lights of Vienna and drove through the darkness. Ardis listened to the humming of tires on road and let it lull her into a trance. Her mind circled through the same thoughts again and again.

  She had to find him. She had to save him.

  Not until now did she realize how much she feared losing him forever.

  A hollow hurt lingered inside Ardis. She hugged herself, pretending she was only cold. She waited without speaking until Konstantin pulled into a weed-choked empty lot. Brick factories loomed in the shadows.

  “Are we here?” she said.

  Konstantin nodded at the truck’s odometer.

  “That’s about seven kilometers,” he said.

  When he killed the engine, it was deathly quiet, broken only by the sound of rain.

  “I need you to pilot the automaton,” he said, “while I take some readings.”

  “That’s why I’m here,” she said.

  Ardis opened the door of the truck and jumped outside. She grabbed Chun Yi from the seat, gripping the scabbard in her hands, and craned her neck to look at the black sky. Wind scattered rain onto her face.

  Konstantin flicked on a flashlight and yanked off the tarp from the automaton.

  “Get in,” he said.

  She blew out her breath, steaming the air, and climbed into the back of the truck. Hesitating, she handed the archmage Chun Yi. She had been holding it so tight, the scabbard’s sharkskin left its pattern on her hands.

  Konstantin held the sword gingerly. “What do you want me to do with this?”

  “Hold onto it for me,” she said.

  “I could leave it in the truck?”

  She shook her head. “We’re not leaving my sword.”

  Konstantin sighed, then tucked the scabbard under his arm. He steadied her with a hand on her elbow as she lifted herself into the cockpit of the automaton. She fumbled for the ignition, then turned the key. The automaton hummed to life.

  “Good,” Konstantin said. “Let me take the first measurement.”

  The archmage opened the front panel of the automaton and hooked up the pocketwatch lookalike. He bent over the dial and rubbed rainwater from the glass with his sleeve, then squinted at whatever the numbers told him.

  “Not far from here,” he said.

  He unhooked the device and pointed his flashlight about forty-five degrees to their left.

  “The interference is strongest that way,” he said, and he waved her onward.

  Ardis jumped from the back of the truck and landed in a crouch. She pressed the automaton’s knuckles into the dirt and pushed herself to her feet. The pneumatics of the metal limbs pumped with smooth power.

  “Follow me,” Konstantin said.

  She lumbered alongside him. The automaton left deep footprints in the dirt as it softened to mud in the rain. They crossed half of the empty lot, and he held up his hand to stop her.
He took another reading on the device.

  “Turn clockwise. More. Less. Stop.” He unhooked the device. “Walk.”

  She did as he said. They walked for a few hundred meters, stopped, took another reading, turned right and kept walking. Rain silvered the air like scratches on glass. Water trickled down the cold metal skin of the automaton.

  “Somewhere,” Konstantin murmured. “Wendel has to be here somewhere.”

  Ardis scanned their surroundings. The nearest factory looked out at her with shattered and empty windows. Deep within the darkness, a light flickered for no more than a second, then vanished. She froze and stared at the factory. Faded white letters had been painted over the doors, but she struggled to read the German.

  “Konstantin,” she said. “Look. I saw a light over there.”

  He ran the beam of his flashlight over the lettering.

  “Sargfabrik,” he read. “Coffin factory.”

  They shared a glance, and she felt a slithering of unease.

  “It looks abandoned,” he said. “Are you sure you saw a light?”

  “Yes,” she said.

  Konstantin backed away from the factory and reached into his pocket.

  “Let me take another reading,” he said.

  She waited for the archmage to do so. Her heartbeat thudded in her ears.

  “The interference is off the charts,” he said. “He has to be here.”

  “I’m going in.”

  She left him behind in three giant steps and stood at the threshold of the factory. A padlocked chain hung across the doors. She wrapped the chain in her metal fist and snapped it like it was no more than a stray thread.

  “Ardis!”

  Konstantin sounded horrified enough that she glanced back. He stood gawking at her.

  “Stop,” he said. “You can’t go in there with the automaton.”

  “Isn’t it fully functional?” she said.

  “Yes, but it’s only a prototype.”

  She paused. “Prototypes are made to be tested.”

  He bit his lip and tilted his head.

  “We can’t risk it,” he said.

  She tried to smile. “I won’t scratch it, I promise.”

  “We would jeopardize Project Lazarus.”

  “More than we already have?”