The Dragon Men ce-3

by Steven Harper

  It was Lady Orchid. Alice breathed relief.

  “I’ll help you!” she called, hoping Lady Orchid could understand the idea, if not the words. “Hang on!”

  She tried to think. The two whirligigs couldn’t maneuver down in the well, and it took four of them to lift a person anyway. Alice examined the mechanical lizard. It had controls on it, levers and buttons hidden among the scales. Over at the steps, Su Shun had switched off the sword to thrust it into his belt and was now brandishing the Ebony Chamber. Gavin blasted another shot of energy, this time at Su Shun, but Su Shun caught the power in the open Chamber, which swallowed it. Heart pounding, Alice let her talent go to work. In moments she worked out how the controls operated, and she slapped a button. The lizard sprang to life. It cranked the windlass, and a bucket more than three feet across dropped into the well. The Dragon Men on the steps had recovered from Gavin’s first blast and were moving in toward him. Gavin flared his wings, knocking two aside. The other Dragon Men had reached their automatons, but Phipps and Li continued to keep them busy with suppressive fire while the soldiers fought with one another, roaring like tigers and shedding scarlet blood.

  A faint splash as well as a shout from Lady Orchid came from below. Alice hoped it meant she was ready. She was reaching for another control on the lizard when a hard hand spun her round. A Dragon Man, salamander glowing around his ear, stared at her. He licked his lips with quick, darting motions and said something Alice didn’t understand, though her skin went cold at his tone. He held up a serrated knife. A strange calm came over Alice. She had hesitated on the steps with Su Shun, and it had cost so much. Now she wouldn’t hesitate. Everything seemed to move slowly, as if wrapped in honey. She smiled at the Dragon Man and put out a slow hand to caress his cheek. He smiled, then shifted his grip on the knife, ready to stab. With a quick twist, Alice wrapped her fingers around the salamander at his ear and yanked.

  The little machine came free with a wet, tearing sound. A trail of blood arced through the air. The Dragon Man’s face went blank. He collapsed to the ground in convulsions, leaping and twitching like a landed fish. At last he gave one final spasm and went still. Alice didn’t stop to examine him. She dropped the salamander and slapped the control on the lizard. It reversed itself, drawing the large bucket up with easy strength. In moments Orchid and Cricket appeared at the top of the well, drenched but unharmed. Lady Orchid’s beautiful face was pinched with fear and pain. Cricket clung to her as they both sat in the bucket, and she held the rope with her good hand. Her stump trailed water, cleansed and strangely purified. Unfortunately, Alice could stay only long enough to make sure they were all right before she turned and ran back to the triple stairs. The staircase nearest her climbed toward the side of the big pavilion, which would send her up along Su Shun’s right and, hopefully, out of his range of vision.

  “You two,” she said to the whirligigs, “go find Prince Kung and tell him to send reinforcements.”

  The whirligigs zipped off into the night sky.

  Gavin, meanwhile, had taken to the air again to avoid the advancing Dragon Men, half a dozen of whom had crowded around Su Shun and the Ebony Chamber. The Impossible Cube was barely glowing now, nearly out of power, and Gavin seemed reluctant to use it. Alice thought about the Dragon Man she had just killed and tasted nausea again. She understood Gavin’s disinclination to kill.

  But when Alice arrived at the side steps and started to climb, she saw things were changing. Li’s men had turned the tide and had defeated or killed most of the Imperial Guards. Li and Phipps had destroyed nearly all the Chinese automatons, and even now Phipps was turning to focus her pistol on Su Shun and the Dragon Men around them. Phipps had no compunctions about killing.

  “Surrender, Su Shun!” Phipps barked, or so Alice assumed-Phipps didn’t translate.

  Su Shun looked down at Phipps and her enormous pistol, at Li, who was finishing off the last of the automatons, at his soldiers, who were dead or defeated. His gaze lingered on Gavin, who hovered above them all with the Impossible Cube, and then he laughed again. Alice was truly beginning to hate this man and his grating laugh. Phipps aimed her pistol at him, but before she could do more, Su Shun raised the Jade Hand one more time and shouted. His voice reached Gavin, who still hovered above the carnage, and the salamander glowed in his ear.

  For a wild moment, Alice thought there was no way for anything to happen because Su Shun was giving the order in Chinese, but of course Gavin understood that language now. Gavin twitched once. Phipps’s pistol whined, and the tip glowed orange.

  “Susan!” Alice screamed. “Look out!”

  Gavin sang. As it always did, the Impossible Cube twisted the crystalline note into something terrible, and a dreadful power thundered down. It swept Phipps and Li and the rest of the soldiers aside like rag dolls. Even off to one side as she was, Alice was crushed to the stairs, and a hot wind blasted her hair and skirts. Sand and small stones stung her skin. She tried to push herself upright, but the forces pushing her down were too strong. The noise and pain went on and on, and she huddled against the steps in a hell of Gavin’s devising.

  And then it ended. Just stopped. Alice’s ears rang in the sudden silence. She sat up. Her skin was scoured and raw. With wings outstretched, Gavin touched down on the stairs before Su Shun and knelt before him with the dark Impossible Cube. Everyone else in the courtyard lay scattered in broken dollhouse piles.

  “Gavin.” Alice’s throat was choked with dust, and she had to cough to get the word out. “Gavin! Fight him!”

  But her words were too quiet. If Gavin or Su Shun heard her, neither paid the slightest bit of attention. Su Shun snapped a question at Gavin.

  “It’s out of power,” Gavin replied in a dull voice. “The water flowed away. The Ebony Chamber can recharge it, but putting the two closer together would make a dragon weapon so powerful that mere floods and volcanoes would be like teacups and lanterns in a mourning parade.”

  Su Shun backhanded Gavin with the Jade Hand and gave him another order. Gavin’s head snapped back, but he spoke again, this time in Chinese. Alice assumed he was translating what he had already said, and ice ran through her veins at the smile that crossed Su Shun’s face. Alice forced herself to her feet. Her legs were shaking.

  Su Shun slapped the hollow Ebony Chamber open with the Jade Hand. Like a puppet on strings, Gavin turned on one knee and held the solid Impossible Cube over it.

  “No.” Alice tried to shout, but it came out in a whisper.

  Electricity spat and arced from the Chamber to the Cube. A rumble shook the earth, and air moved across Alice’s cheek. Sparks danced around the spider gauntlet on Alice’s left hand, and the metal tingled. Gavin lowered the Cube. The sharp smell of ozone permeated the air, mingling with a tight tension. Thunder rumbled overhead. Fingers of lightning crackled in all directions, and matching flickers of it danced in the clouds above. Gavin’s hair stood out, and a manic expression descended over his face. His wings quivered and glowed so brightly, they were hard to look at. The Impossible Cube was a thing of solid light, the Ebony Chamber an utter black void. Hungry cracks ran up all three staircases and the two dragon statues at the top shattered with ear-crushing explosions. Power swirled and dripped from Gavin’s hands. Su Shun spoke again, and Gavin pushed the Cube fully into the maw of the Chamber.

  A whirlpool of light and dark swirled around the two objects become one. It rushed outward, engulfing everyone in the courtyard. Phipps and Li and the surviving soldiers and Dragon Men convulsed hard as the energy swept over them, and overhead a thunderbolt boomed through the sky. The whirlpool sucked itself back into the Cube and Chamber, leaving an abrupt silence. Alice staggered up to the top of the cracking threefold staircase and realized her footsteps made no sound. Her clothes didn’t rustle; her breathing was completely silent. Even her heart, frantic and fast within her chest, made no noise. Lightning tore the sky again, but no thunder came. The open box at Su Shun’s feet glowed bloodred. Alice moved around
until Su Shun was below her on the staircase and picked up a rocky bit of rubble from one of the dragon statues. She crept down the steps.

  Sound returned in a rush. Thunder exploded overhead and wind rustled. The semiconscious people at the bottom of the staircase groaned and tried to stand up. Gavin’s wings chimed their single soft note. And Su Shun’s voice cut through it all. At his order, Gavin pulled the Impossible Cube out of the Ebony Chamber. The red radiance came with it. He tried to back away with it, but Su Shun barked another order. The Jade Hand glowed, and Gavin froze into a statue.

  Alice struck. The rock smacked Su Shun’s head. It made a sound very much like a muffled bell. Alice had hit the metal part of his skull. Su Shun turned, an expression of surprise and anger on his half-brass face. With quick reflexes he caught her wrist and wrenched the rock away before she could hit again. Pain bit her arm, and she dropped to the rock. Frantic, Alice tried to scratch his eyes with her spider gauntlet’s claws, but he was a soldier and moved easily out of the way. He was laughing again, toying with her. How was it that he always gained the upper hand? She raged and fought, but he held her wrist and moved with her. It was like dancing with a snake. He was enjoying this. Behind him, Gavin stood motionless, holding the Impossible Cube. It had shifted from red to orange, and a low thrumming pushed against the air. At once Alice knew what was happening. She had seen the Impossible Cube run through the spectrum of colors before, from red to orange to yellow on up, and when it reached violet at the top, it would do something dreadful. It had torn time itself twice before. Now it held all the power of its infinite opposite.

  “Flood and plague will destroy us if you don’t cure the world.”

  The clockwork plague had created the Impossible Cube and the Ebony Chamber. Together, they could warp the forces that held the world in place, crack continents, and send floods all over the world. And it would happen in a very few moments.

  Su Shun twisted Alice’s wrist, forcing her to her knees. Clearly he’d had enough. His other hand locked around the back of her neck, and she didn’t doubt he had the strength to snap the bones. His grip cut off her air. She gasped, trying to breathe.

  And then Alice reached up to the wire sword at Su Shun’s belt. Her fingers found the switch on the hilt and flicked it on. Before Su Shun quite knew what she was doing, she yanked. The vibrating blade slipped free, scoring Su Shun’s side. He screamed with the unexpected pain and let go. From her knees, Alice punched him in the groin with her gauntlet. Iron crunched through lacquer, and she felt the impact of metal on flesh all the way up her arm. Su Shun stiffened and dropped without a sound.

  Alice found herself standing above him, holding the vibrating sword and staring at the shallow gash she had opened up along his side. The cable from the hilt of the sword still led to the battery pack on Su Shun’s back. Su Shun made a feeble attempt to grab at Alice. With a snarl of anger that surprised even her, she kicked him in the meat half of his face. He went still. She stood over him, panting.

  Gavin remained where he was on the steps with the Impossible Cube. It glowed yellow now. Power radiated off it in waves, and the stones beneath Alice’s feet shuddered. A section of the red wall surrounding the Forbidden City crumbled and splashed into the moat. Alice looked at the Jade Hand at the end of Su Shun’s arm and then at Gavin. He wanted to move, but Su Shun’s last orders stopped him, though he panted with the effort of trying to defy it. His eyes flicked a glance at the Cube, then at the sky.

  Alice understood. He could take the Cube away from the earth. Up there, he could deal with it, detonate it or destroy it or-

  The words Monsignor Adames had spoken to Gavin came back to her. “You will cure the world, and Alice. . Alice must let go.”

  She met Gavin’s eyes. She knew, and he knew. If she let him go, if she released him from the Jade Hand, he could take the Cube away, stop it from destroying the world. But releasing all that power would kill him. The sword became a heavy weight in her hand. She tried to think. There had to be a way around this.

  “Gavin,” she said softly.

  He managed a tiny nod. Emotion swelled, and tears pricked at her eyes. She remembered the moment she’d met him, when he’d given her a cheerful wave from high up in the tower where Aunt Edwina had imprisoned him. He was always bright and merry, and his music and his voice made her heart soar. How could she ever let him go? He was the one person who loved her as deeply as she loved him. The thought of a world without him made her want to lie down and die herself.

  “I can’t,” she said. “Gavin, I just can’t.”

  The Cube deepened from yellow to green. The tremors strengthened. More cracks began to appear in the walls around the Forbidden City. Alice felt the tension in her feet. Lightning blasted the air above them both. Phipps tried to get to her feet and fell back again. Li lay beside her.

  “Please. .” The sound of Gavin’s voice was barely audible. He was fighting the Jade Hand’s control. “Alice. .”

  It would be so easy, so simple to refuse. Gavin was going to die no matter what. What would it matter if she and everything else vanished as well? No one would know she had failed, because they’d all be dead, too. How many times had doomsday weapons come close to destroying the world? Maybe it was time for one to succeed.

  The Cube shifted to bright blue. A great crack opened up in the courtyard. Some of the smaller buildings in the Imperial City collapsed, and the great pavilion behind Alice swayed noticeably. Over the noise, Alice heard screams and cries rising from Peking.

  What was she doing? She couldn’t condemn millions to death, no matter how much pain it might cause her. With a scream of her own, Alice, Lady Michaels, lashed down with her sword and sliced off the Jade Hand.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Gavin’s muscles unlocked and he nearly stumbled. The Impossible Cube, bright blue in his hands, glowed with so much power, it felt both hot as the sun and cold as the void of space. He could feel it lashing out, gripping gravity and pulling at it, tearing at the roots of the planet itself. It would tilt the planet and bring the water. Su Shun had ordered him to push it into the Ebony Chamber and create the ultimate weapon, one that would let him command China, conquer Britain, control the world. But nothing could command, conquer, or control this.

  The Jade Hand lay limp on the cracked stairs. More beautiful than a warrior queen, Alice Michaels stood over Su Shun’s unconscious form, the quivering sword in one hand, gauntlet shielding the other. Tearing wind blew her hair around her head. The Impossible Cube lay in his hands between them. His world moved around her, but he had to leave her to save it. Fatigue pulled at him, and the Cube was oddly heavy. His wings pulled at his aching back. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t leave her alone again. What was the point? He wanted nothing more than to hold Alice and wait for it all to end.

  “Go!” Alice shouted. “It’s your time, Gavin! Go now!”

  He shook his head. “I left you once, Alice. I won’t do it again. I’m tired, Alice. I’m tired of fighting the plague and fighting for the world. Eventually one of these stupid weapons we make will succeed. Why not let this one do it and get it over with so we can be together?”

  Alice looked stricken. Tears stood in her eyes. “You can’t, Gavin. You have to go. Take the Cube away.”

  He kissed her. “No. I’m finished, Alice. I’ve gone through hell once. I’m not doing it again.”

  “Oh, Gavin.” She dropped the sword and put her hands on his wrists. More lightning sundered the sky. “Gavin, please. I don’t want to do this. Don’t make me do this.”

  “Do what?”

  Her voice was measured, but there was a catch in it. “Don’t you see it, darling? Look at the sky. Look at the clouds, the mist, the air.” She was crying now, tears flowing in twin streams down her face. “And the Cube. The patterns on its back, its middle, its front. The patterns move and shift, move and glow. Aren’t they fascinating? It’s a pattern inside a pattern inside a pattern. Regularity inside regularity, infinite insi
de infinite.”

  Her voice, still audible over the shaking earth and growling thunder, reached inside him. He knew what she was doing, but still he couldn’t stop it. The plague roared to life. The patterns she had mentioned were obvious now. He could see fractals in the clouds, patterns made of smaller patterns that repeated endlessly downward. The Cube was doing the same thing, creating more and more patterns. He couldn’t stop looking at them. Now that she had pointed them out, he didn’t want to.

  “You want to have a closer look,” she said. “You can fly, glide, soar, and examine, scrutinize, inspect.”

  “Alice. .,” he whispered, and then took off with great sweeps of his mechanical wings. She spiraled down beneath him, and he caught “I love you always” as he flew away.

  The Impossible Cube glowed a deep indigo as he clawed for altitude. The battery indicator on his wrist said he was running low, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was that he had plenty of height, that he could reach the clouds. His ears popped, and he swallowed. An enormous lightning bolt zipped past him, missing him by only a hundred yards and filling his nose with ozone. Thunder boomed. Then the air grew cold and quiet, and damp mist closed in all about him, though it also felt heavy. The perfect crystalline chime kept him aloft and free, nothing holding him down, nothing holding him back. He rose above the cloud layer, trailing bits of mist. The clouds spread in all directions beneath a perfect silver moon. Flashes of red and blue light rushed about beneath his feet, and the Impossible Cube sent out its terrible, beautiful indigo glow. The patterns were so enticing. He stared at them, lost and thrilled. This was what he had been born for, and Alice had let him go.

  He stared down at the Cube, rushing in and down now as he had rushed out and up before, finding the designs that made up designs, tiny particles made of particles made up of particles. And there they were, caught in the dance-the little pairs. The Impossible Cube had them, too. They turned and moved together. What one did, the other did. They were all connected. Particle and particle. Void and solid. Water and fire. Air and earth. China and England. Clockworker and Dragon Man. Cube and Chamber.