Clockwork Heart

by Dru Pagliassotti

  She steeled herself and pressed the blade against Alister’s carotid artery.

  “Let go of me, Alister.”

  The decatur’s left hand shot out and grabbed her wrist before she could move. He stood, his grip tightening as he forced her arm up and aside, over her left shoulder.

  “Taya—”

  She jerked herself around, spinning all the way to her left. Her wings screeched over the face of the Great Engine, and then the metal feathers sprang free, slapping Alister across the face and chest. He swore and released her, more startled than injured.

  She dropped to her left knee, gasping as her wound sent a fresh pulse of pain shooting through her leg, and slashed behind her with the knife.

  The blade slammed harmlessly into Alister’s leather boots, but the impact was enough to make him hop backward.

  “Stop that! You’re being foolish!”

  She looked down. A square box of tin Engine cards sat on the platform— Clockwork Heart, she presumed. She shoved it sideways and it hit the metal guardrail.

  “No!” Alister dropped to his knees and grabbed it.

  They knelt shoulder-to-shoulder, yanking the box back and forth as the tin cards inside jingled against each other. Then Taya jammed her knife into the box’s side and sawed down, ripping out one of the corners.

  Slick metal cards poured out of the ragged hole, tumbling into the chasm.

  “Scrap!” Alister grabbed the box and tore it from her grasp before all of its contents could vanish into the depths. She slashed at his wrist. He slid the box behind him and sprang to his feet.

  Taya tried to do the same. Pain skewered her and she dropped back to her knees, tears stinging her eyes.

  “Now look what you’ve done,” Alister growled, reaching down. He snatched the knife from her suddenly weak hand and tucked it inside his robes. “You’re bleeding to death and you’re still trying to fight me.”

  “Nobody bleeds to death from a calf wound,” she gasped. She was almost certain she was right, but Lady, she’d never been shot before, and her calf hurt like Forgefire. She looked down through the grillwork.

  The incandescent lights flashed off a small mass of moving metal crawling up the side of the Great Engine.

  She blinked.

  “Take off your armature.”

  She looked up.

  “No.”

  “Take it off or I cut it off.” Alister reached down and grabbed her arm. “I need to see that wound, and I can’t get a good look with your tailset in the way. If the bullet left any leather or padding under the skin, your leg could get infected.”

  She looked up at him. He looked just as concerned as if she hadn’t just foiled his plan to control the Great Engine.

  “Why do you care?”

  “You still don’t understand, do you? I’m trying to take care of you— you and Cristof both. But you aren’t making it easy.”

  “What about Caster Octavus? Were you taking care of Viera when you killed him?”

  “I—” He looked away. “I’m sorry about that. Caster was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  “You murdered him!”

  The exalted sank into a crouch, facing her. She pulled her arm back and he let it slip out of his grasp.

  “I’d intended to get on the wireferry alone. But at the last minute, Caster hopped on with me, wanting to talk about the Clockwork Heart vote.”

  “You could have waited.”

  “No, I couldn’t. The alarm was set, and I couldn’t pull the clock open and disarm the bomb while Caster was standing there arguing with me, could I? Besides, it was obvious from what you’d said that Cristof was close to discovering me. I had to do something drastic to knock his investigation off its cables.”

  “So you framed him for your murder?”

  “I wired the bomb into the clock in the hope that it would implicate him. I knew if the lictors arrested Cris, it would keep him off my trail. I’ve always intended to show up again to clear his name.”

  She swallowed. “But why kill Octavus? Couldn’t you have taken him prisoner?”

  “It was hard enough to climb out of the car on my own. I couldn’t have done it carrying another man. I knocked him out, though. He didn’t feel any pain.”

  Taya shuddered, imagining the burned and mangled body parts in the wreckage.

  Body parts…

  She looked at Alister again, filled with cold fury. “No. You needed Caster. If you’d been alone, there wouldn’t have been any body in the wreckage. Everyone would have known you weren’t dead.”

  His green eyes shifted, and she knew.

  He was still lying. Even now he was trying to charm her, trying to convince her that the deaths in his mad scheme had been accidents.

  But he’d known exactly what he’d been doing when he’d gotten on that ferry with Caster. Not only would Viera’s husband provide gore for the search team, his dissenting vote would be removed from the Council chambers.

  “You’re a monster,” she spat. She grabbed the railing with one hand and pulled herself up, ignoring the pain in her leg.

  The flash on the side of the Engine caught her eye again. It was closer now. She squinted, then spun, turning her back to it.

  She had no idea how he’d managed it, but somehow Cristof was climbing up the shifting, floating, cliff-like face of the Great Engine, his ondium wings strapped in a bundle on his back.

  “How did you get out of the car in time?” she demanded.

  Alister’s expression seemed colder now. He wasn’t trying to charm her anymore.

  “It’s easy to reprogram a wireferry driver. I had it pause at a maintenance tower for a minute, just long enough to swing out and climb down.”

  “And you hid on the mountain for two days?”

  “Hiding from the rescue teams by day and traveling at dusk and dawn.” Alister shrugged. “I’ve hiked before, although I hadn’t anticipated how cold it would get at night.”

  “You hiked in your public robes.”

  “Of course not.” He smiled. “I’d hidden climbing gear and supplies by the maintenance tower. After Neuillan’s arrest, I realized that a wise decatur must be able to drop out of sight at a moment’s notice.”

  “Emelie said you helped Neuillan avoid the loyalty program.” She dredged its name out of her memory. “Refinery. Is that true?”

  “She must have been mistaken.”

  “She seemed pretty certain.” Taya gave him a steady look. “You were working with Neuillan, weren’t you? Did you know Cristof helped catch him?”

  “In his role as a lictor’s spy?” Amazingly, Alister seemed as disapproving as Viera had been. “Cris shouldn’t have gotten involved. Neuillan took good care of us when we were orphaned. Arresting him was poor thanks.”

  “Was he really a traitor?”

  Cristof sighed. “Yes, I’m afraid he was. But I didn’t know that at the time. I thought he was an idealist, like me, willing to bend the rules for the greater good. I was as shocked as anyone else when his ties to Alzana came to light. But if I’d been the one to find out, I would have tried to reason with him, not arrest him.”

  “How did you cheat Refinery?”

  “I’ve never cheated it,” he said, surprised. “I’m not a traitor. Don’t you understand? Everything I’ve done, I’ve done for Ondinium.”

  She felt sick. “Refinery can’t identify murderers?”

  “It can only calculate someone’s likelihood to kill. Certain types of bloodshed are desirable, you know. Lictors need to be able to kill as part of their job. And look at you! You threw a man to his death to protect my brother.” Alister’s voice softened as Taya twitched with guilt. “But I respect that, just as I respect Cris killing to protect you. It’s perfectly rational to defen
d yourself and your friends. Believe me, if I could have done this peacefully, I would have. If Pins hadn’t been giving evidence to the lictors, if Caster had only seen reason, if Cristof hadn’t been so close to identifying me…”

  Taya ignored his excuses, still brooding over the man she’d thrown over the side of the crosswalk. “Who was he? The man I killed?”

  “I’m not sure. William, I think. He thought you were a terrorist, breaking in to stop me from doing my job.”

  “You mean, he was innocent?” Fresh horror swept over her. “I thought he was your accomplice!”

  “He was one of the lictors who stayed behind to guard the Tower. He didn’t have any reason to doubt me when I informed him I’d hiked up from Primus to check the Engine. He and his partner escorted me here and stood guard while I worked.”

  Taya felt like she was about to vomit. The man had just been doing his job. Lady. She began to shake. Oh, Lady, grant him a swift rebirth and forgive my sins.

  She grasped at a straw. “Why didn’t he recognize you? The lictors would have known Exalted Forlore was supposed to have died in the explosion.”

  “I didn’t give them my real name, and unlike my brother, I don’t travel in public without my mask.” Alister shrugged. “I was carrying convincing security papers and I wrote down the correct passwords. Lictors are selected for obedience, bless them.”

  “They would have figured out the truth eventually.” Taya drew in a deep breath. “Sooner or later they would have told someone about you, and inquiries would have been made.”

  “Ah…” Alister frowned at his chipped nails, then looked up. His face was hard. “Take off your armature, Taya.”

  “So you can throw me over the side, too?”

  “Are you going to make me? So far all of this can be explained away, if you’ll agree to cooperate. But if it boils down to my word against yours, I don’t need to tell you which one of us will be believed, do I?”

  “Cristof will support me.”

  “It won’t be that hard to prove that you’re both Torn Cards who came here to destroy the Great Engine after trying to kill me and Caster. You were close to the last wireferry accident. Maybe you were there to make sure it killed the right man and only rescued Viera when it became clear Caster wasn’t on the car. And Cris, well, he’s already a suspect. Those two lictors were heroes who rescued me in the middle of the night and then died to save me from your attack. I can make you a hero or a villain, Taya Swan. Which will it be?”

  Taya shifted, rising on her toes and planting her back more firmly against the railing. Pain made her head swim.

  “You wouldn’t do that to Cristof. You might ruin me, but you wouldn’t hurt your brother.”

  “I would rather not hurt either of you.” His voice dropped. “Work with me, Taya. We’ll retrieve Cris and explain to him that the lictors were forcing me to reprogram the Engine at gunpoint. I’ll make you both heroes, and then, if you’ll let me, I’ll prove to you that I’m not such a bad man.”

  He stepped closer. Taya pushed herself up until she was sitting on the railing, her back to the open chasm. “Don’t,” she warned.

  “Please.” Bright light glittered off his golden jewelry and highlighted the castemarks on his face and the smear of blood along his cut cheek. “You know how much I admire you. You said you felt the same way about me. Do you remember our dance? You looked so beautiful in that dress. I wish you’d gone home with me that night. Pins might have stayed alive, if you’d kept me occupied.”

  Taya was caught by his emerald gaze, remembering his strong arms holding her as they danced. Then she thought about Caster Octavus and Pins, and she jerked her gaze away with disgust.

  His expression darkened, and he lunged. Taya let herself fall backward, tumbling heels-over-head off the rail.

  “Taya!”

  She saw Cristof stare at her, wide-eyed, as he clung to the side of the Great Engine, just beneath the crosswalk. Then he looked up at his brother, lifted his arm, and fired his needle gun through the grillwork.

  Taya closed her eyes, feeling the air rushing against her face. She reached up and slid her arms into the wings by touch. Without the spinning depths to disorient her, she stretched and unlocked them.

  She opened her eyes, waited until her tumbling put her head-up again, and spread her arms.

  So far, so good. None of the chasm-crossing cables or catwalks had caught her. That had been her only concern. Falling backward off a ledge was an icarus game she’d played often as a teenager, dangling from wireferry towers and sitting on cliff tops. The only danger was the unknown.

  The thrill of free fall cleared her mind and pushed the pain away. She took advantage of the respite, forcing herself to gain altitude as fast as she could.

  Above her, Cristof was clinging to the outside of the platform railing. Alister had grabbed the pistol’s barrel and they were struggling for the possession of it. Taya swept her arms down again, flying up to break the stalemate.

  Alister glanced over Cristof’s shoulder and saw her. He redoubled his efforts.

  Cristof released the gun and rolled himself over the railing, falling to the crosswalk floor. As Taya sped toward the platform, Alister thrust the barrel of the gun into Cristof’s face and pulled the trigger.

  Taya made a strangled protest, but nothing happened. With an oath, Alister fumbled for the safety.

  “Alister!” Taya twisted and began to backbeat. Alister glanced up at her, then back down at the gun.

  Cristof fumbled in his flight-belt pockets as Alister’s thumb snapped the safety back. Alister aimed the weapon just as his brother’s hand reemerged.

  The outcaste opened his fingers and a five-pound ondium counterweight shot into the air, clipping his brother under the chin. Alister’s head rocked backward and a spray of needles stitched the air, one sending a shudder through Taya’s wing as it hit an ondium feather.

  Taya’s heavy boots slammed into Alister’s chest and drove him backward, into the Great Engine. The metal punch card tray on the Engine’s face snapped off beneath him, and her wounded leg felt like it was on fire.

  She frantically backbeat to keep her balance, and then Cristof ducked between her wings, grabbing the harness straps between her shoulders and steadying her until she got her feet beneath her again.

  Limping, Taya grabbed the front of Alister’s robes and slammed him against the Engine one more time.

  “I hate you!” she shouted. Tears of anger and pain streaked her face. “You make me sick!”

  “My gun,” Cristof protested. Careless of her own safety, Taya yanked the weapon from Alister’s hand and held it over her shoulder. Cristof took it from her.

  “Taya.” Alister looked stunned. “I’m sorry.”

  She spit in his face, then stepped back to let Cristof have him. Alister wiped off his cheek, looking hurt.

  “What was that for?”

  “Trying to kill your brother.”

  Cristof stepped to one side on the platform, the needle gun held steady.

  “You punched me when you’d thought I’d killed my brother,” he observed. “Why does Alister get off so lightly?”

  “I thought you’d succeeded.” Taya was shaking with released tension. “Alister only tried.”

  “Twice.” Cristof turned a hard gaze on their prisoner. He looked as forbidding as he had the first time she’d seen him.

  “Don’t exaggerate, Cris.” Alister’s emerald eyes darted back and forth. “I knew the fall wouldn’t hurt you, and I wasn’t trying to kill you with the pistol.”

  “You didn’t think shooting me in the face would be fatal?” Cristof was squinting, and Taya realized he wasn’t wearing his glasses. He must have lost them in the fall. “Maybe you were too excited about throwing me into the abyss to notice what I did to your lictor?”r />
  “You’d better let me have the gun,” Taya said, worried about Cristof’s nearsighted aim.

  “I’m sorry, Taya, but I don’t think you have a cold enough heart to shoot.” The tall exalted’s voice was flat. “I, on the other hand, am very tempted to run a few needles through your legs right now, Alister.”

  “And then what would you do?” Alister straightened and smoothed the front of his embroidered robe. “Are you going to turn me in, Cris? You know what they’ll do to me, don’t you? Are you really going to let them blind me and flog me out the city gates? After all we’ve been through together?”

  Cristof’s needler trembled. Then he shifted his grip and the trembling stopped.

  “Blinding is for traitors, Al. Murder carries the death penalty.”

  “So you’ll let me die? That would make you the last Forlore. Will you go back to Primus and take up the mask again? Or you will you let our family line vanish from the ranks of the exalted?”

  “I don’t see any compelling reason to keep it going. The last two generations have been murderers.”

  “You’re as guilty as I am,” Alister said, pointing to the lictor’s body sprawled on the crosswalk behind them.

  “Exactly,” Cristof said, evenly. “As I said, no compelling reason.”

  “Cris, let me tie him up,” Taya said, reaching for her safety line and remembering that she’d left it on the catwalk high above. “I need your line.”

  Cristof pulled the coil off his harness and held it out. She limped forward and took it.

  “Our swan’s been shot,” Alister said, watching them. “Did you notice the blood on her leg? I don’t think you should make her walk around on it.”

  “Shot?” Cristof turned, giving her an alarmed look. “I thought—”

  Alister tackled him. Taken off guard, Cristof staggered and fell to one knee, his air pistol skittering across the grillwork from his hand.

  Taya grabbed for the weapon. Its barrel brushed her fingertips as it slipped over the catwalk edge.