The Wooden Prince

by John Claude Bemis

  Pinocchio wondered if he should defend his master and Bulbin, but until Al Mi’raj ordered him to do so, he would wait.

  “Could the automa have belonged to the traitor Geppetto?” the doge asked.

  “I know nothing about this Geppetto,” Al Mi’raj said. “I swear…I mean I promise you, my doge, I had no idea it belonged to any Geppetto!”

  The doge glared at him. Then he released Bulbin. The gnome thudded to the floor. He gasped a deep breath as warm brown color returned to his face. Bulbin got on all fours, panting and wide-eyed with fear as he gathered the crumbled other gnomes and pushed them back into his body.

  The doge removed a handkerchief and began cleaning his leaden hand. He pursed his fleshy lips at Captain Toro. “What is your name, airman?”

  “Captain Toro, airman of the Ninth Carabinieri, my doge.”

  The doge addressed a massive soldier, older than the others, with cropped silver hair and scars crisscrossing his haggard face. “General Maximian, didn’t you tell me that Captain Toro was the first to report that the traitor Geppetto was here in Tuscany?”

  The general stepped forward. “Yes, my doge. Apparently Geppetto had been hiding in the village of San Baldovino for months under the name Polendina, pretending to be a shopkeeper.”

  “And why wasn’t he captured when your soldiers arrived?”

  The general gave an uncomfortable grunt. “He slipped past us somehow. Although I believe Captain Toro questioned him in his shop before he managed to escape.”

  “I…but…there was no automa in his shop!” Captain Toro spluttered. “There was no way to know at the time he was Geppetto. My orders were to search for a man in possession of the automa who escaped from Don—”

  “Captain Toro joined our search,” the general went on. “Breaking off from his patrol—without orders, mind you—he cornered Geppetto on an aqueduct. However, he lost Geppetto when he was attacked by the automa. Captain Toro then claimed the automa brought him back to life after he drowned.”

  “The automa did—” Captain Toro began, but the doge silenced him with a glance.

  “After what we’ve all seen today, it would appear Captain Toro could have been telling the truth about this automa. Don’t you think, General Maximian?”

  The general gave a stiff nod. A smile of vindication crept onto Captain Toro’s face.

  “An automa who can bring back the dying…” The doge waddled around to face Pinocchio. “How is it able to do this?”

  Al Mi’raj crouched submissively. “I swear to you, I have no idea, my doge. This is beyond anything Bulbin and I are able to do to an automa.”

  “I’m certain of that,” the doge sneered. “General Maximian, this is the answer to our problem. This automa is just what we need to keep our prisoner alive.”

  “Yes, my doge,” the general replied.

  “Is it true then, my doge,” the lord mayor whispered, “that you have captured Prester John?”

  The doge cut his eyes warily over to Al Mi’raj. Al Mi’raj looked like he would spontaneously combust before he repeated anything he’d heard.

  “Yes, we captured the immortal king of Abaton,” the doge said, his hands behind his robes as he paced. “But I made the mistake of assuming he would bring the Ancientmost Pearl with him. Sadly, he left it in Abaton for safekeeping. And now, without his precious Pearl, he is dying, at long last, aging into a decrepit old man in my prison at this very moment. But this automa…”

  The doge rounded on Pinocchio. “This one, whatever Geppetto has done to it, this one might keep Prester John alive long enough.”

  “Long enough for what?” the lord mayor asked. “What good is keeping him, if he’s dying?”

  “Oh, I have my reasons, Lord Mayor,” the doge said. “Prester John has many uses to me, but only if he is alive. And I will need my former high alchemist. I need Geppetto. General, what is the latest news on the search for him?”

  General Maximian began, “Our last report was that Geppetto was spotted fleeing from the river after Captain Toro supposedly drown—”

  “I did drown!” Captain Toro squawked.

  The doge waved a hand, and General Maximian continued.

  “Our men say Geppetto escaped with the assistance of a blue fairy. He hasn’t been seen since, but we have redoubled our efforts and are scouring the countryside, my doge. I can assure you, we will find him.”

  Captain Toro’s face went pale, and when the doge saw it, he said, “What’s the matter, Captain?”

  Captain Toro mumbled, almost incomprehensibly, “I…I saw two travelers just yesterday. One was a fairy. The other…”

  “You let Geppetto slip past you yet a third time!” General Maximian barked.

  The doge fixed his gaze on the trembling captain. “Is this true, Captain Toro? Are you such an imbecile that you spotted a fairy with a man and you didn’t suspect it was Geppetto?”

  “I…she said he was her uncle. She said he was a fairy too.”

  The doge’s voice dripped poisonously. “Can you not tell the difference between a man and a fairy?”

  “My doge,” Captain Toro pleaded, “he was cloaked. I saw them just as I was learning about the automa in Al Mi’raj’s show. It was a crucial discovery! One that led me immediately to Siena. I was going to report it to General Maximian when—”

  “Don’t give me excuses, Captain!” the doge said, his jowls flapping in rage. “I want Geppetto. I want to know how Geppetto has done this to the automa!”

  The room grew quiet.

  A moment later, Toro began to mumble, “My doge, I just had a thought.…If Geppetto was there yesterday when I heard about this automa, he must have heard it too. He would come here to Siena. He might be here now!”

  As the doge considered this, his anger began to wane.

  “I can have the city guards begin a sweep at once,” the lord mayor said. “We can close the gates and—”

  “No,” Captain Toro interrupted.

  The lord mayor grimaced, but the doge said, “What is it, Captain?”

  “We shouldn’t scare him into hiding,” Captain Toro said. “If Geppetto feels he has a chance to rescue this automa, he might come here. Tonight, even.”

  “Yes,” the doge agreed. “Yes. We must show him that we have not departed with his masterwork of an automa. Show him that he has an opening if he wants to rescue it.”

  The doge pointed at Al Mi’raj. “Lock the automa in with the half-beasts.”

  “Yes, my doge,” Al Mi’raj said, looking as if he had narrowly escaped a death sentence.

  “General,” the doge said, “we will set a small guard to show that the automa is here. The rest of my guards and airmen I want back at the mayor’s Palazzo Pubblico at once.”

  “I can stand post here—” Captain Toro began.

  “I don’t want you botching this again, Captain,” the doge snarled.

  Captain Toro’s face twisted unpleasantly. He stayed silent, bowing his head in submission before following the doge, the mayor, and the soldiers from the room.

  Once they were gone, Al Mi’raj snapped his fangs, the black spots on his yellow face growing larger with rage. He knelt. “Are you all right, Bulbin?”

  The gnome nodded, still looking shaky.

  Pinocchio felt he should be afraid of the doge. He had a vague memory that the doge had done something bad to his former master Geppetto. But the fogginess in his head was too thick. He couldn’t muster a worry.

  “What you want me to do?” Bulbin asked. “Do we help the doge?”

  “We have to,” Al Mi’raj said. “We have our own necks to worry about.”

  “But you seen what this automa can do! If the doge has the power to raise the dead—”

  “He also has Prester John dying in a Venetian prison. It might be the only way to save His Immortal Lordship.”

  “Believe me,” Bulbin said. “The doge en’t doing this to help Prester John. There’s some dark scheme at play here. Something awful.”


  “There’s nothing else we can do, Bulbin. It is not our problem anymore. We’ll lock him up with the chimera as ordered. Go with Bulbin,” Al Mi’raj said to Pinocchio, “and stay in your cell until the doge’s soldiers collect you.”

  Bulbin sighed. “Get up, manikin.”

  Pinocchio stood, realizing he might be leaving Al Mi’raj’s theater soon. Al Mi’raj was his master, so if Al Mi’raj wanted him to go with the doge, he would obey.

  Pinocchio was taken to the dungeon deep beneath the theater and locked in a separate cell from Mezmer and her chimera. After Bulbin left, Mezmer came to the bars separating her from Pinocchio. “Why are you here, automa?”

  “The doge is taking me away in the morning,” Pinocchio replied.

  Sop sneered at him through the bars. “Most likely going to take you apart and figure out how you performed your trick.”

  “Quiet, Sop,” Mezmer said. She nodded to Pinocchio. “Wish I could repay you for what you did, lad. But it’s not looking too likely I’ll have the chance.”

  “Repay me?” Pinocchio asked. “An automa has no need for money.”

  Mezmer laughed. “I mean I’m in your debt. You saved my life. A knight always honors her debts. I don’t know how you did it, but I live another day because of you. All of my darling mongrels, too.” She cocked a furred thumb back at the chimera.

  A few nodded in agreement, like the boar. Sop and some of the others glanced uneasily at Pinocchio.

  “What good is another night waiting to die?” Sop mumbled, licking the back of his hand to smooth the fur around his eye patch.

  Mezmer leaned closer to Pinocchio to whisper, “How did you do it, by the way?”

  Pinocchio said, “I do not know.”

  Mezmer watched him with bright orange eyes. Finally she walked away.

  One by one, the chimera fell asleep. Pinocchio stood alone against the stone wall at the back of his cell. There was nothing to figure out, nothing to worry about. There was only waiting until his master told him what to do next.

  The door to the dungeon opened, and Wiq came in. He whispered, “We have to be quiet.”

  “All right,” Pinocchio said.

  “The doge is going to take you away in the morning.”

  “Yes, I know.”

  Wiq looked surprised. “But if you do, you’ll be in trouble, Pinocchio. You know how dangerous the doge is.”

  “I do?” Pinocchio asked flatly.

  Wiq stared at Pinocchio. “What’s wrong with you? Are you just going to let Al Mi’raj give you to the doge?”

  “I do what Master Al Mi’raj orders.”

  Wiq shook his head. “No, you can’t. Why are you acting this way? Don’t you remember our promise? I thought we were friends.”

  Wiq pushed up his sleeve, showing Pinocchio the loop of jasmine around his wrist.

  Pinocchio blinked at the sight of the bracelet. He looked at Wiq as if seeing him for the first time. He slid up his own sleeve and discovered an identical jasmine bracelet. A memory wanted to break through the fog that was clouding his thoughts. “Friends? We are…friends?”

  “Did Bulbin do something to you?” Wiq said, his voice shaking. “What’s happened?”

  “I think…” Pinocchio fought against the fog. “I think when I saved the half-beast…”

  “The fox chimera?”

  “Yes, Mezmer,” Pinocchio continued. “I lost something. I cannot think right.”

  “You’re acting like…an automa,” Wiq said.

  “I am an automa,” Pinocchio replied.

  “Not an ordinary one. You can think for yourself! You’re different, Pinocchio. Don’t you remember? Please remember!”

  He was trying to. He wanted to. What had happened to him?

  Wiq said urgently, “You’re becoming…alive, Pinocchio! You’re searching for your father. He wants to find you.”

  Yes, his father. Geppetto! He didn’t belong to Al Mi’raj. He belonged with Geppetto. Geppetto wanted him to be his son!

  The thought was like a breeze blowing the fog clear from his mind. Pinocchio gave a gasp as his memories began to flood back. With them came a welling of panic. “Wiq! I’m in trouble.”

  “I know!” Wiq said. “That’s what I’ve been saying.”

  “And the doge…he’s planning a trap. He wants to capture my father! I have to get out of here.”

  Wiq looked beside himself with relief. “You will.”

  “I will? How?”

  Wiq held up a ring of keys.

  Wiq unlocked the cell. Pinocchio hesitated as he opened the door. The fealty lock in the back of his neck tingled and his nose itched.

  “Wiq, I can’t. Al Mi’raj ordered me to stay here. If I disobey him, my nose…”

  Wiq flipped through the jumbled mass of smaller keys. “I stole these from Bulbin’s workshop. We just have to figure out which one fits.”

  As Wiq began trying one fealty key after the other, the chimera woke. Sop came to the bars, his tail slashing back and forth. “Mezmer, get up!”

  The fox was awake in an instant. “What are you doing, lad?”

  Wiq kept working. Pinocchio felt keys jostled around hurriedly in the back of his neck. “Don’t say anything to her,” Wiq murmured.

  His words weren’t quiet enough, and Mezmer narrowed her eyes at Wiq. “Maybe I should shout for the guard.”

  “No, don’t!” Pinocchio said. Then he whispered back at Wiq. “We have to set them free too. They’ll be killed otherwise.”

  “It’s too dangerous, Pinocchio. I’ve got to get you away. I can’t release all of them as well.”

  A key slid neatly into the slot in Pinocchio’s neck, clicking the tumblers into place.

  “I’ve got it,” Wiq said.

  Pinocchio reached back to stop Wiq’s hand. “When you turn it, who will be my master?”

  “I’m not sure,” Wiq said. “I have to say a name, or anyone—the doge, or even one of these chimera—could declare themselves your master. Who should I say?”

  “He wants to be your master, automa,” Sop said. “Your chum wants to make you his servant so he can escape.”

  “That’s not true!” Wiq said. “I’m helping him.”

  The one-eyed cat gave a sinister purr. “Sure you are, puppet master.”

  “Say that Geppetto is my master,” Pinocchio said.

  Wiq turned the key, and Pinocchio felt that momentary weightlessness, that feeling of freedom. Then Wiq said, “Geppetto is your master now.”

  Pinocchio wondered what would have happened if he’d gotten Wiq to say Pinocchio is your master now. But it was too late. The heaviness sank over him. It wasn’t like when Al Mi’raj had become his master. That had been crushing. This felt like a comforting weight, like a heavy blanket. He was glad he belonged to Geppetto again. If only he could find him.

  “Whatever happened to Abatonian loyalty?” Mezmer asked coolly. “Free us.”

  “Yeah,” Sop chimed in. “He’s just an automa. We’re chimera like you. And do you even have a plan to get out of the city? There are airmen everywhere. You’ll need us.”

  “Do you have a plan?” Pinocchio asked.

  Wiq shook his head.

  “Sop’s right, lad,” Mezmer said. “If you let us out, we can help you escape. We’ve snuck out of worse spots.”

  Wiq looked worried. “I…I don’t know…”

  “We can trust them,” Pinocchio urged. “I just know it.”

  “You can,” Mezmer said. “I swear to you as a knight of the Celestial Brigade.”

  “A what?” Wiq asked.

  Sop snorted. “She fancies herself one of the legendary Abatonian order.”

  “I am a descendant of the founder of the Celestial Brigade, the glorious chimera hero Mezmercurian!” Mezmer said.

  “So you’ve told me a million times or two.” Sop gave a sigh. “But it is true that if Mezmer gives her word, it won’t be broken.”

  Wiq approached Mezmer with a frown and s
poke quietly. “If I let all these chimera out, the airmen will spot you for sure. There are too many of you.”

  “Trust me, darling,” Mezmer said with a wink. “We’ll want them all freed.”

  Wiq looked hesitant but began unlocking the cell doors. The chimera rushed out, growling ferociously. Although their savage displays were disconcerting, Pinocchio realized they were just showing their excitement in their own monstrously peculiar ways.

  Mezmer gathered her brethren at the door. She held a hand to silence them and said, “Which way, lad?”

  “Airmen are guarding most of the entranceways,” Wiq said. “But there’s a door to the back alley. A hidden door. Where Al Mi’raj has his stolen automa snuck in. Al Mi’raj wasn’t giving up that secret. There’s no guard posted there.”

  “Splendid,” Mezmer said.

  Wiq led them up the stairs from the dungeon and through the hallways until they reached the door to the alleyway where Pinocchio had first come in. They rolled aside the barrel at the top of the stairs, and one by one the chimera slipped into the dark. Pinocchio followed Mezmer and Sop. As he did, the door shut behind them.

  Pinocchio spun around and saw Wiq peering at him through a small panel in the door. “What are you doing? Aren’t you coming?”

  Wiq shook his head slowly. “I can’t, Pinocchio. You know I can’t.” He touched a finger to the collar.

  “But…but we promised to get away together!” This wasn’t their plan. What was Wiq doing? Pinocchio shoved his arm through the hole to grab Wiq, but Wiq stepped out of reach.

  “I’m not leaving you!” Pinocchio said. “My guts feel like they’re boiling. It’s my instincts…they’re telling me this is wrong, Wiq. Don’t do this!”

  “I have to,” Wiq said, his voice strangely raspy. “And you have to. Can’t you see, you goof?”

  Pinocchio felt something sharp and awful piercing in his chest. “But…but…” Pinocchio said. “Please! You’re my friend.”

  Wiq brushed angrily at his face. “I know. And you’re my friend too. That’s why I have to break our promise. I wanted to go, but I can’t. You’ve got to understand. This is the only way for you to get away.”

  “Come on, dear,” Mezmer said pulling on Pinocchio’s arm. “Don’t make it harder.”