Steampunk Tales, Volume 1

by Ren Cummins

  Rom nodded.

  “Show me.”

  Looking around her, she gestured for her friends to step back, and then summoned the scythe-form of her crook. The sandman went silent, but the dark pools of his eyes now stared at the weapon itself. Rom brought the weapon around to draw it carefully through the creature. As always, the weapon left no physical mark of its passing; but the creature’s expression instantly changed. Where before it had seemed animalistic and mindless, now it seemed dark and calculating.

  Its eyes went from person to person, finally resting again on Rom’s face.

  “We know of thee,” it hissed.

  Rom nodded. “I know.”

  Goya tapped the sandman with the end of her cane. “Speak, wretch. What are you?”

  “We are many; we are one,” it said, as if reciting the statement from memory. “But we do not seek you. We only seek she who is Death.” Emphasizing the last word, his blackened eyes fell directly and pointedly on Rom.

  Kari looked at her friend with saddened eyes, remembering briefly their many talks in the orphanage that had raised them both about their future plans. Such bittersweet dreams now seemed so distant, and yet Kari could still see them so easily in Rom’s face.

  “Why?” Rom asked.

  “Because our Mistress commands.”

  “And who is your mistress?” Goya demanded.

  The sandman hesitated a moment, before smiling cruelly. “My Mistress is she who would devour Death.” His head turned back again towards Rom, and a ragged breath entered its ruined lungs. “But that is all I will say; now I return to her side.” Its face began to crumble, his eyes graying over and dissolving in their sockets.

  “No!” Rom yelled.

  Goya held out a hand to her. “Rom, follow it. Reach out into your gems and catch hold of its soul before it can flee!”

  She wasn’t sure exactly how to do that, but Rom closed her eyes and touched her gems with her fingertips. Instead of calling to her animal friends who used the gems to come and go from the world of the spirits, Rom tried to imagine the path from this world to that one, looking for the soul of that sandman.

  She felt it more than saw it; could sense its putrefied self, like a foul stain on the otherwise pure nature of that place. Reaching further, she willed it to stop. In her mind, she saw it as it was, and as it had been. In its life, it had been a man.

  His blue eyes were filled with fear.

  “No, please, I beg of you – do not harm me; I couldn’t stop myself, I could only do what she made us do!”

  Rom looked at the man. He was maybe four or five years older than Favo, with closely-cropped black hair and a slight growth of stubble across his square jaw. She could see the mark of the sandman on his skin, but even that was fading quickly.

  She glanced around them – they were standing in the shadow of the castle, unnoticed by the countless other sandmen moving about the elevated pathways behind the battlements.

  “What is this place?”

  He stepped back into a darker shadow. “Careful! They might see us!”

  Responding to the palpably genuine fear in his voice, Rom stepped closer to him and into the relative safety of the castle wall.

  “This is the first place I remember after they did their experiments on us. I think…” his voice trailed off momentarily. “I think they killed us.”

  “Who?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t know who they were – scientists, working for the Queen. We were brought to one of her centers there, a school that studied aging and things like that.”

  Rom nodded, “I think I saw the place.”

  “But I remember, one of the doctors said they were going to make us strong, like the Reapers themselves. I…I’m sorry, but I didn’t even believe you were real.”

  “So you know what I am?” Rom asked, genuinely curious.

  He shook his head in the affirmative. “After we woke up here, we knew a lot of things we hadn’t known before. And they showed us what you looked like and told us we had to find you and bring you back to her.”

  “Her?”

  “Our Mist… well, the woman who commands us.” His head dropped and he sighed. “When I woke up here, I didn’t care about anything else but her. I didn’t care about my wife or kids - - my oldest is a few years younger than you, I suppose - - I just cared about doing whatever she wanted me to do, whatever would make her happy with me.” He covered his face in his hands.

  Rom was silent for several moments, giving him time to his thoughts.

  “I’m sorry,” she finally said.

  He lifted his head, rubbed his eyes and drew his fingers along his face. “Look, I know a little bit about the experiments. One of the men in my unit said they’d been doing this experiment for years now; it’s some kind of chemical they tested on the animals out beyond the Wall. He said they had found an old library out there they’d found the original chemicals in crystals they’d dug up, and they’re using that to try and make us all into perfect soldiers or something. But it was terrible, a nightmare. It felt as if I was trapped between two worlds, existing in both…but living in neither one.”

  He pointed out away from the castle. Rom recognized the mountains in the distance of the world of spirits as echoes of the mountains of the wild.

  “Whatever answers you’re looking for, I think they’re out there.”

  Rom looked back at him. “Thank you.”

  He reached up as if he was going to touch her cheek, but saw the corpselike claws of his hands and withdrew. To Rom, it seemed as if the corrupted sandman image of his body was fighting for dominance with his original form. “What is going to happen to me?” he asked. “I can’t go back like this, I don’t want to be one of her slaves again. I just… I want to go home.”

  She saw the faded silken cord that connected his soul to his body dissolving behind him. “Your body is gone now,” she said. “And I can’t send you forward, the other one like me guards that doorway.”

  A resolved smile crossed her lips, though. “But I think I know some people who can help you.” She reached out with one hand to hold him by the wrist. The echoes of his death were fading now, and his spirit form was returning to its original self. Rom pictured Memory in her mind and raised one hand towards the setting sun. Cradling the thought in the palm of that hand, she placed it on the man’s forehead, leaving it glimmering like a faint circle.

  “What is your name?” she asked him.

  He paused a moment, as if struggling to remember. At last, his eyes widened. “It’s Jondal,” he said.

  Rom blinked, recognizing him at last. “You were in Oldtown,” she said. “You ran a store there, I came in a few times with my friend Kari.”

  Nodding, Jondal smiled. “We were undercover. Not very well, though.” His smile faded. “Oh, your friend…the tall one with the dark hair…”

  “Ian,” Rom said, her throat suddenly tightening.

  He bit his lip. “I’m sorry, I – we didn’t know…”

  She shook her head. “No, I know. It was the woman, Molla. Don’t worry about it, we’ll…” she took a deep breath before continuing. “Just don’t worry about it.”

  Rom removed her hand from his head. “That should keep your memories maintained while you’re here, long enough for my friends to help you.”

  A short furry creature slipped out of the undergrowth near their feet, lowering its triangular-shaped head towards Rom.

  “Jondal, this is Rickets, he’s a friend of mine. He’s going to take you a few other friends of mine, and they’ll get you sorted.”

  “Yu is going to meet up with us when we get to the forest,” Rickets said.

  Rom nodded, and looked back at Jondal. “They are going to want to know everything you know about this castle, as well as everything that’s going on there, how many people there are inside…everything. Can you tell them that?”

  He nodded. “I’ll do whatever I can to help.”

  “Good. You should get
going now, I’ll make sure you get away.”

  Jondal seemed like he wanted to say more, but shook his head and turned to follow Rickets to shelter. As he reached the cover, he turned back to Rom one last time.

  “Please – if you can – find my family? And tell them…” he paused, unable to find the right words.

  Rom held up her hand, nodding. “I’ll tell them.”

  She watched until they had long since faded from sight, unable to get the thoughts of Ian to find a comfortable place within her mind. At last, she gave up and simply allowed herself to return to her body which still stood within Goya’s parlor.

  Chapter 16: In Which Favo is silent, briefly

  After she had recounted some of the events with the world of spirits to the others, Briseida led the children into the dining room to have some tea and crackers while Favo cleaned up the powdered remains of the sandman who had once been known as Jondal.

  Goya sat in her chair, watching him.

  “I see you have taken steps to resolve the matter with your former lover and betrayer,” she said.

  He sighed, pausing with the broom in his hands. “I’m not even going to ask you how you would know that, old woman.”

  Goya held the sandman’s mask in her hands. “Molla once wore a mask similar to this,” she noted. “Not precisely the same, but similar enough. Am I correct?”

  He agreed with a brief nod.

  “But it gave you only a little trouble to see these creatures wearing it. Your mind is resolved, at ease with her path, which came so close to ending your own.”

  Favo sighed. “I never claimed to be a good man, reputation notwithstanding.”

  Smiling kindly, Goya turned the mask over in her hands. “I would never judge you, young man. You already do a fine job of that.” She continued, even as he opened his mouth to reply. “I only hope you are able to put your heart at peace with it.”

  Favo looked back over his shoulder as if concerned their conversation was being overheard. “Yes, I found her in the city. And I…” he took a soft breath, realizing that this was the first time he’d admitted it, “I killed her.”

  Goya nodded again. “And this haunts you.”

  He started to sweep again, but stopped as suddenly as he had begun. “They say it’s supposed to be easier the second time,” he whispered bitterly.

  “Not for good people,” Goya answered.

  Favo looked up at her face. “Why does this matter to you?” he asked.

  Goya looked past him to the doorway, where Briseida paused, carrying a small plate of fruit. She regarded them both, and, nodding, stepped back out of view. In the other room, Goya and Favo could hear the other’s voices, with the occasional clatter of plates and cups of tea.

  “The hearts of all about whom I care for matter to me,” she said simply. “And,” she continued, “yours is once again needed. But take heart, you roguish man – those who care for you will await the return of their familiar Favo.”

  His brow felt lighter for the briefest of moments. “Will that man return?”

  “He will,” she replied. “The sun returns each night, even after the coldest of nights.”

  She looked again at the mask and would say no more, and so Favo cleaned up the rest of the sand and ash in relative silence, many thoughts weighing still upon his heart.

  Goya and Favo joined the others a short while later, and noticed that Rom’s expression was fixed and focused. Goya commented on this.

  “You know where you are to go next for your answers, then, Romany?” she asked.

  Rom shook her head with a start. “What?”

  Goya smiled. “I have seen your expression as such before.”

  Briseida nodded in agreement. “You looked that same way before you left.”

  “No! You just got back!” Kari said, gripping Rom’s hand.

  Rom sighed. “Well, I don’t know. I mean, I know where I have to go, I just don’t know how to get there,” she confessed.

  Cousins shrugged. “Maybe you should start with what you do know, and perhaps together we can answer the rest.”

  Biting her lip, Rom at last explained what Jondal had told her. “He said that the answers were out there, in the Wild. He said that there’s a library or something out there and that they first started poisoning the animals out there – which I guess is what made them monsters – and that they did all of it so they could make their soldiers as strong as me.”

  Briseida, standing, looked down at Goya. “There once was a temple out to the west, wasn’t there?”

  Goya nodded. “No one has been there since before I was born,” she said. “The monsters living between here and there made travel impossible. But I would imagine it still stands.”

  Cousins fiddled with his Looking Glasses, pretending to clean the lenses. “Well, I guess that answers one question I’ve had, then. When shall we leave? I’m thinking… early morning?”

  Shaking her head, Rom pulled her hand away from Kari and looked down at the table. “No,” she said. “You can’t come with me. If I have to go through all those monsters, it’ll be dangerous enough for me.”

  To her surprise, the blonde haired young man laughed. Slipping his glasses back onto his forehead, he shrugged. “I never said we’d have to go through them. I’m thinking we could just go over them.”

  His eyes rested on Kari, drawing the eyes of everyone else at the table. She seemed suddenly quite uncomfortable.

  Rom looked more closely. “Kari?” she asked. Suddenly, Rom understood. “That machine in your lab…. What does it do?”

  Kari ushered Favo, Briseida, Rom and Cousins quickly inside her lab and closed the door behind them. “Look, I know it’s against the law,” she said in a whisper. “I just… well, it’s all his fault,” she said, pointing at Cousins.

  He replied by pointing at the Looking Glasses. “I saw… that,” he said, pointing at the machine, “flying out of the town towards the mountains… tomorrow morning. What I saw wasn’t someone else. It was us! Or, rather, it will be.”

  Favo’s eyebrows rose. “Indeed? Clever little trifles you picked up along the way. If I had known they had such a charm, I might’ve taken them from you.”

  Briseida slapped him lightly across the back of his head. “You’ll do no such thing.”

  He feigned injury with a wry grin. “Well, it wouldn’t have been so wise of me to announce such a thing if I truly planned to follow through.” Turning back to Cousins, he pointed towards the unusual contraption. “Flying, you say?”

  Kari held out her hands towards the machine. “I haven’t thought of a name for it yet, but, oh, yes, it should fly. This big tube here gets heated up with lift gas – it’s a little thing we make in the chemical foundries – and the pressurized steam and propellers should move us forward.”

  Favo walked closer to appraise the machine, taking particular note of the four chairs. Cousins stood beside him, nodding.

  “Four people,” Cousins breathed. “Just like I saw.”

  Rom shook her head. “No, it’s really going to be dangerous,” she repeated. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  “Touching,” Favo grinned. “But irrelevant, for we will be going in spite of your protestations.”

  “Well, except you,” Rom amended. “I don’t mind if you get hurt. But I’m serious, there’re a lot of monsters out there past the machines.”

  Cousins placed a hand on Kari’s shoulder, and stepped around her to address Rom. “Well, let me explain something. I’ve already seen this ship flying west, and it flies tomorrow morning with four people. So, assuming that Kari is steering it, that means I’m going – because every lady needs an escort. So that would leave two people if you go off by yourself when we come after you.”

  Favo sighed. “I suppose, then, I will be attending, as you young people will be in dire need of a chaperone.”

  Briseida rolled her eyes. “A chaperone? Even you could not be so deluded, Favo,” she teased.

  “H
ow poorly you know me!” Favo protested. “I may even be inclined to act in a heroic manner,” he teased back.

  Rom frowned. “Four people?” Cousins nodded in confirmation. She looked back at Briseida, the only other likely candidate. “But you have to stay and care for Goya,” she said.

  Cousins and Kari walked closer to their friend, and put their hands on her shoulders.

  Kari leaned close to Rom. “You already left us behind once,” she said. “This time, we’re coming with you.”

  Only after it was clear that they would not back down, Rom nodded. “Okay. Okay, we’ll go together.”

  Favo patted the hull of the machine. “Fantastic! But,” he said over his shoulder, “lest we challenge the gods of good fortune, we’re going to have to give her a name. In Aesirium, they have names for everything that moves; even the great vessels that brought our ancestors to this land bore the names of their gods.”

  The room fell silent for several moments. At last, it was Briseida who spoke.

  “Does it have to be a god’s name?” she asked. Favo assured her that it did not. “Could we name it ‘Ariana’? It was my… my mother’s name.”

  Favo’s eyes narrowed. “Your mother, you say?”

  She avoided his gaze, looking instead towards Rom and Kari, who seemed to like the sound of it.

  “And what would your mother think about her name being given to a vessel whose very nature breaks the royal laws against flying vehicles?”

  Briseida’s face darkened slightly. “I think she might believe it was ironic.”

  Rom saw Favo’s head nod, curiously amused by the conversation for reasons she was certain only he and Briseida understood. Grownups were unusual, she thought once more.

  The name decided, Kari went to make additional adjustments while Cousins and Favo went to fetch provisions for their trip. Briseida and Rom stood close to Kari while she worked, helping with some of the last bits of preparation.

  At one point, Rom looked up through the ruined skylight. “It’s going to fit through there, right?”

  “Maybe. I think so, yes.” Kari looked up, frowning at the dimensions of the framed window. “Perhaps.”