“Go ahead, take a peek…” Blitz’s sinister little voice taunted him.
“I don’t want to.” Langdon was rooted to the spot in fear. If it was as he suspected, he wasn’t sure what that could mean.
“What are you afraid of?” Blitz mocked him.
“Silence, you evil thing. Let me be,” he yelled at Blitz, which sent the little clockwork dragon into fits of laughter. Langdon wanted nothing more at that moment than to run over, pick Blitz up by his little mechanized neck, and shake him like a dog shaking a rat.
Resisting the urge, he walked slowly toward the bed until he was within arm’s reach. Grasping the edge of the sheet he slowly slid it back. His worst fears were soon realized as the graying beard, and pallid skin were revealed.
He found himself staring at his own face, devoid of life, pale and unblinking. “It’s as I feared. I am dead.” He felt odd looking at the soulless eyes staring blankly upward. This was just what he had been dreading most.
“Why?” He paused, looking around the bed, “Why am I alone?” In all the previous visions he had been shown in the past twenty-four hours, there had been other people involved. In this one, however, no one else was in the room. Not a single person stood by his side, or wept for his passing. “Why am I alone?” he asked again, his voice louder and more urgent. The dark Immortal One pointed at the floor.
Something the size of a pocket watch lay there. The chain on it had been broken, but on the front, was the form of a dragon with red rubies for eyes. Langdon grabbed it up, to study its intricate details.
“What is this?”
“That is your fate, and how you will die. Your human form remains here, but as the Siapheg, you are old and weak. You will assume the duties of Siapheg, but live only one week before the Teselym finds and kills you. She is ferocious in her duty, and will not tolerate the amount of evil you are willing to do in your reign as Siapheg.”
“I don’t want to be the Siapheg! I’ve said that from the beginning. Why? Why force me to do something when I obviously don’t want it?” Langdon’s eyes flashed with anger.
Blitz leaped from the Immortal One’s shoulder and flew circles around Langdon’s head.
“Oh, but you do want it. And you will do it,” he cackled.
“Silence Blitz!” The dark One shushed him, “It doesn’t matter what you want. Either you accept the role, or you will spend eternity chained to me.”
“Won’t I spend eternity with you anyway?”
The Dark One laughed, “Well, yes, that is true. However, if you accept your fate, I will lessen your punishment. Either way, you’re going to spend eternity with me anyway.” He threw his head back and laughed. Blitz stuck his tongue out at Langdon and then jumped and flitted about as if he were the happiest creature on the planet.
“Jacob! You thieving, conniving beast! You know very well you were not to speak on this subject. He was not to know all that would befall him. You are cursed for all of eternity.” Another little clockwork dragon had appeared, growing in size and voice as it chided the dark Immortal One.
Langdon took a step back, nearly tripping. “Wh… who are you?”
The clockwork dragon ignored him and instead turned his attention to Blitz. “And you! You’re not even supposed to be here, until Langdon has accepted his fate. Do the celestial Immortal Ones know you’re out?”
Blitz growled playfully, like a toddler, shaking his head ‘no’. “But Jacob said…” Blitz protested.
“I don’t care what Jacob said, he will answer for what he has done. Now, back to where you belong, you troublemaker. You’re not supposed to be here,” the little bronze dragon continued. Blitz looked dejected, and with a funny little ‘POP’, disappeared. The hateful look on Jacob’s face sent ripples of fear through Langdon. “And another thing, Jacob… send him back. You know full well, he is not yours forever.”
Jacob feigned innocence, “Why, whatever do you mean?”
“Professor Cornelius. Free him this instant and let him go back where he belongs.” The little clockwork dragon continued growing until he towered over both Langdon and Jacob.
“Nonsense. You think I will honor the agreement Quincy? I will not. Trading Langdon for Cornelius is not even worth my time. They are both mine!” With that, Cornelius had appeared at Jacobs side, still chained around his waist, and looking as hopeless as ever. “It’s not up for discussion,” Jacob hissed through clenched teeth, as he yanked Cornelius closer to himself by the chain.
Quincy, spread his wings, and Langdon could hear the gears clicking and whirring as his wingspan reached full capacity.
“Just what do you think that is going to do? Scare me?” The Immortal Jacob mocked.
“May I remind you that I channel everything you say to the Celestial Immortal Ones? They can hear your every word. Why do you think I’m here?” Quincy prodded.
“Ugh, such a kiss up.” Jacob said contemptuously.
“Wait, what do you mean, Jacob? The Immortal Ones were going to trade me for Professor Cornelius?” Langdon piped up, his curiosity piqued at the thought of such an undesirable arrangement. He watched the face of Cornelius to see his response, but his former business partner didn’t even flinch at the revelation. Perhaps Jacob has already destroyed all of his hope, and that’s why he was so desperate when he visited me earlier.
Jacob laughed again. “Desperate indeed. Only this isn’t about him. Once you accepted your fate as the Siapheg, and got yourself killed, they were going to send you straight to me. I had agreed to send your old pal Cornelius up to the big guys in the sky. The only thing is, as you know from your conversations with the Immortal Ones, Professor Cornelius made his own choices, so he is rightfully mine. One life sacrificed to save another life, does not make a deed right, or worthy enough for a trade. Especially when no one in the tradeoff is innocent by any means.”
“Jacob, the Immortal Ones will destroy you!” Quincy yelled, flying straight at Jacob’s head. His mouth opened and sent a stream of flames at the dark One.
“Catch me if you can.” Langdon heard the rattle of chains, and in a trice Jacob had taken professor Cornelius and disappeared.
“Agh!” Quincy yelled, “they should have destroyed you when they had the chance.” But Jacob and Cornelius had already gone, and only Langdon and Quincy remained in the room.
Chapter Seventeen
Langdon could hardly internalize all that had taken place during his time with the dark Immortal One. I’m going to die once I become the Siapheg? My life was to be a trade for Professor Cornelius?
“I thought the Immortal Ones told me that Professor Cornelius had earned his fate. That I was not to blame for where he ended up, because even though I influenced him, I had no control over the choices he made?” Langdon looked up at Quincy, who now took up half of the room, and realized how absurd it was that he was asking such deep questions of a clockwork dragon.
“Really? Out of all you’ve seen this night, you think I’m the one that’s the problem?” Quincy shook his head, clearly irritated. “You’re not even supposed to have the ‘sight’ yet. You’re not a Siapheg.”
As Langdon pondered what that meant, he noticed that Quincy was slowly losing all of his mechanical appearance. His gears and cogs now blended into a full-bodied green-scaled dragon. He looked like something straight out of a fairy tale.
Langdon rubbed his eyes, not sure if he was seeing things, but the green dragon remained.
“How did you do that? What do you mean by sight?”
“I meant dragon sight. You’re not supposed to know that I’m made of clockwork parts until you become a Siapheg.” Quincy shook his head. “They’re just throwing out all the rules, with you… aren’t they?”
“Who is?”
Quincy shook his head. “Never you mind. Let’s get back to the task at hand. Jacob was supposed to show you more, but it’s obvious he isn’t coming back. I suppose I’m going to have to finish this leg of your journey. It would make my life easier
if you would just stop questioning everything and hop on my back so that we can get this over with.” Quincy was snippety, and more human in nature than the Immortal Ones, Langdon decided.
“Uh, Quincy… can I ask you something?”
“Ugh, if you really feel you must take up more of my time, then go ahead.”
Langdon, not knowing how to proceed, but knowing that he needed to know the truth, decided to ask the pressing questions that had been playing on his mind since the beginning.
“Why are the Immortal Ones going to all this trouble to show me who I was, who I am, and what will happen to me in the future, if my fate has already been decided?”
“You humans are all alike.” Quincy let out an exasperated sigh, “Here’s the thing. You had to be made to understand how truly bad you were. That is a must before you become a Siapheg since you were not born of the Siapheg blood line. Follow me so far?”
Langdon nodded.
“Great. As for the rest of it, it’s just for further proof. You missed out on a great life because of the choices you made. They hoped that showing you the truth would help make your decision easier. That whole last bit about you being traded for Professor Cornelius, well… see, that isn’t something they do very often. However, Cornelius was a truly generous man before he came into your employ.
“Because of that, they were going to give him a second chance on Earth. Again, not something they normally do.”
“Really? I don’t even want to know how they would go about such things. However, why turn me into a Siapheg if I am only going to die a week later? Doesn’t that mean they will be looking for another one? You know, someone else to take my place. Seems like a lot of trouble to go to when I’m only going to be around for a short time, and me with no progeny.”
Quincy opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out.
“Darn, I was hoping to give you that bit of information. It would have helped you understand this process a bit better.”
“What do you mean?” Asked Langdon.
“I’m sort of a conscience… so to speak. My job is to aid the Teselym, help her make the right decisions. The decisions that are hard to make, and since she’s female, she requires my services more often than not.” Quincy chuckled lightly, so Langdon realized it was his attempt at a joke.
“So, what about the Siapheg? Do you help them too? I mean is there a limit to the evil that they can perform?”
“No, I do not assist them. It’s not needed. As you were told earlier, Jacob plays his part very well. For reasons of his own he was going the extra mile to make sure you became the Siapheg. He doesn’t normally send Blitz out to do his dirty work. Anyways, everyday evil intentions come from within humans quite naturally. Especially for you it seems. So, in truth, Blitz wasn’t even needed.”
“So, Blitz is like an evil version of you?”
“More evil and less intelligent, yes.”
The words hung over him, like a dagger piercing his heart. It’s true. It’s all true. I deserve to take Cornelius’s place. I deserve whatever horrible things happen to me. I have no doubt about it any longer.
“Well, that’s not entirely true. But we’re running late now, so if you would just climb on my back, we can get this night over with. We’re kind of on a schedule.”
Langdon looked up surprised, “Do the whole lot of you do that?”
“Do what?” Quincy asked.
“Read minds? It’s really annoying.”
“Well, the Immortal Ones have to, otherwise how would they know the intentions of a person? So, yes, they do. I’m supposed to help the Teselym plan her strategy to balance good, so naturally I read minds too.”
“Ugh.” Langdon responded, then resolved himself to the task at hand. He walked over and climbed aboard Quincy’s cool, scaly back.
Quincy had to shrink down a bit, so they could exit the front door, and fly out into the night. A chilling wind whipped at Langdon’s face as they soared over the city.
As they landed a few minutes later, Langdon could see they were outside a cemetery.
“Oh no! I do not wish to see this.!” It had been his dead body earlier, so he naturally assumed that Quincy was taking him to see his grave.
“Sorry, all part of the process,” Quincy answered, as he stood just outside the gate. “You need to go on in. Your funeral is taking place at this moment.”
“How? My body still lies cold in my bed.”
“Really? That’s what you choose to ask?” Quincy snapped, “have you not noticed that time works differently in these visions? I would say memories, but what is about to happen isn’t your memory since you haven’t actually passed yet. Let’s call it a forewarning.” Quincy fell silent and nudged Langdon toward the cemetery.
“Fine,” Langdon mutter, reluctantly shuffling his feet, as he walked through the graveyard.
It didn’t take him long to arrive at a freshly dug grave where a minister stood looking quite bored. Nearby stood Adrian, his face downcast and hands folded neatly in front of him. There was no one else around. A tombstone rose from the ground, its stone face grim, even under the hood of night.
“Why is Adrian the only one here?” Langdon spoke aloud to himself, realizing that Quincy had stayed back by the gate and there was no one to answer.
Adrian looked somewhat sad, but he was in no way distraught. The clergyman read a passage from the bible, and then closed it up, said a short prayer, then without another word, left Adrian standing there alone. The entire grave yard was silent as could be, and it wasn’t long before Adrian was turning from the open grave, and walking away as well.
“That’s it? No words? Nothing to say in my favor? Did I do no good at all?” The silent graveyard had nothing to say to Langdon’s question, and now finally everything that had occurred over the past two days hit him like a ton of bricks. He deserved whatever evil befell him. He would accept his fate, become the Siapheg, and he wouldn’t even fight it anymore. He would take the place of Cornelius when the time came, and he would be grateful that his friend would be given another chance at life, a chance that a man like Professor Cornelius greatly deserved.
As the grave digger showed up and began tossing dirt on the wooden box below, Langdon walked back to Quincy, who blended in with the dark surroundings so completely that he ran smack into him without seeing him.
“Watch where you’re going,” Quincy reprimanded him.
Chapter Eighteen
“I’m sorry,” Langdon apologized to Quincy. “I didn’t mean to run into you…” He felt a deep sadness overtaking him from head to toe. I deserve the worst there is to come.
Quincy looked Langdon up and down, his gaze finally settling on the downcast man’s face.
“It’s sobering, isn’t it?” Quincy asked, keeping his dragon voice low, despite the fact no one could hear him anyway.
“I don’t want to talk about it, I just want to go home and accept what I deserve.”
“As you wish.” The clockwork dragon lifted into the sky and flew them both back to the Octagon Inn. Langdon entered first, followed by Quincy, shrinking himself to the size of a small dog.
“I suppose this is it. Thank you, Quincy, for showing me what I needed to see. You have shown me a mercy I did not deserve.” Langdon’s head hung low as he shuffled off to bed. He could only hope that he would be able to get even a single wink of sleep as he assumed the following day would be a dark one indeed. Quincy watched the man retreat to his room and then shrank to his normal size and flew back up to Wylie and Adrian’s room.
Having stopped Jacob’s foolishness for the night, and fulfilling his duties to the Immortal Ones, Quincy took his place on Wylie’s dresser. She had the Dracosinum, his usual resting place, with her. Though it had gone against the norm to allow her out that evening on her own, she was a wise Teselym and he knew she would come fetch him if she needed him. For now, he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.
As morning dawned, Professor Granger raised his head fr
om the desk. He looked around, wondering how he had ended up in the office, rather than in his bed? He heard a soft tapping at the door.
“Come in,” he said, his pulse pounding, wondering if the Immortal Ones had already come for him so early in the day.
“Umm, professor?”
“Come in Adrian.”
“I know this will displease you, but I need to ask for more time to work on the steam powered carriage.” Adrian’s voice was unsteady.
“The problem is Adrian, the World Wide Inventors Symposium has been pushed ahead to December, and it seems you’ve done nothing with your time here. You haven’t even named the motor company for which we hope to use your invention.” As Langdon spoke, he remembered that just a short time ago, he had uttered those exact same words.
Adrian shifted his feet awkwardly at Professor Granger’s tone.
“Er... um... Professor Granger, excuse my interruption, but you know that my carriage, the Petford pusher, was destroyed twice. With all due respect, there’s no way we could have gone on with the Symposium in two weeks even if we wanted to. Also, I have been mulling over the name and logistics for quite some time.”
This is the same response Adrian gave the first time. What is this nonsense? Am I being given a do-over? A second chance? Or perhaps everything that happened, was just a terrible dream.
“Oh, have you?” Professor Granger responded, softening his tone somewhat.
“Indeed, I have sir. Petford Motors will be the greatest transportation company in America.” Adrian answered excitedly.
“Petford Motors? What does a motor have to do with it?” Professor Granger, genuinely curious, heard himself asking.
Adrian smiled widely, “If you don’t mind, may I get something out of that drawer?”
“Of course, my boy!” Langdon stood up, and took a step back, allowing Adrian to reach into the small top drawer and grab some paper schematics.
“This is it, Professor Granger.” He unrolled a worn sheaf of papers and flattened them out on the desktop. He pointed emphatically at the main drawing just as he had done before. I must be reliving my memories? Or the day? Do I dare hope that I have been given a second chance? Langdon fought to contain the glimmer of hope that had begun to build in the pit of his stomach. It was true that Professor Granger had never seen anything like it, or at least he hadn’t until a few days ago, and now he was seeing it for the second time. The professor’s face drained of color, but a thrill of excitement built in the pit of his stomach.
A Steampunk Christmas Carol: (The Dracosinum Tales) Page 9
