A Dance Like Flame (Of Magic & Machine Book 1)

by Tammy Blackwell

  Be happy. Be loved.

  They were the final words she’d written to him as well.

  Dearest Ezra,

  I am sorry to have betrayed you yet again. I know you will never fully forgive me, yet I wouldn’t change a thing. My sweet Aisling will live, and for that I will take a debt to you into the afterlife.

  Look after Jack for me. It’s going to take him some time, but eventually he’ll heal, with your help. When the time comes, make certain he remarries. Aisling needs a mother, and Jack needs a wife. He does not do well on his own, as you well know.

  Never forget, life is for the living.

  You were my first love and my truest friend. The future you’ve always deserved is within your grasp. Don’t let your stubborn pride keep you from reaching out and taking it.

  Be happy. Be loved.

  Hattie

  “Goodbye, my dear one,” he whispered, pressing his fingers to the place on his cheek which still felt preternaturally cool to the touch. Tears were rolling down Jack’s face, but with the moon not bothering to put in an appearance, no one would know besides Ezra, who would certainly not condemn him for them.

  With the spirit departed from the body, those who had been invited into the inner-circle — Ezra, Jack, Hattie’s mother and father, her two older brothers and their wives, her unmarried younger brother, the Dowager-Duchess, Lady Tenney, and Garroway — moved forward and placed their hands palm-down above the body. At the Ankou’s nod, they began to chant in unison, causing the body to rise off the stone dais. Ezra had worried about this part. He’d never been a direct part of anyone’s death rites before, and at no point had they discussed how to coordinate their movement. Yet he found the steps came naturally as they transferred the body to the wooden pyre.

  Once the body was settled, the Ankou began anointing it. Common potions, such as those to bring peace and tranquility, were used first, but by the end the concoctions were as complicated and mysterious as the Ankou themselves. The air smelled sweet, bitter, salty, musky, and floral all at once.

  After the anointment ritual was complete, the four corners and four elements were honored. Then, each member of the inner-circle placed an offering on the pyre: a gown, one Ezra recognized as a ballgown she’d worn when they were young, from her mother; a book from one brother; a deck of cards from another; a bouquet of roses from the Dowager-Duchess; and from Ezra, a stack of letters bound by string. Jack was the last to place his offering on the pyre, and instead of a lock of his own hair, the husband’s traditional offering, he picked up a folded piece of cloth that had been placed at the head of the pyre. Jack carefully unfolded it, revealing blood and other stains. Aisling’s birth cloth. Jack gently placed it over Hattie’s stomach, smoothing out the wrinkles and ensuring it was straight.

  And then it was done. No one knew how the fire started. Undoubtedly it was a spell cast by the Ankou, but no words were heard, nor any movement detected. The pyre simply went up in flames the moment Jack stepped away.

  It was over. Hattie was gone. Forever.

  His first love.

  His closest friend.

  Gone.

  The loss was so profound he felt it as keenly as he would have the loss of his bones. And yet as he stood there, watching her body become no more than ash, he could not help but wonder if Bits had joined the rest of Corrigan and stood just outside the henge’s boundary. And he could not stop himself from wanting to seek her out so he might once again find comfort in her arms.

  Chapter 28

  Bits stood beneath a starless sky, watching as the flames consumed the Duchess of Sidhe’s body.

  Mrs. Chanse had tried to keep her from coming, but she’d made a promise. Since Lily’s chair would have a difficult time navigating the stony ground between the main road and the henge, she’d asked Bits to come and keep an eye on Ezra.

  “I don’t think that would be wise,” Bits said that morning while standing once again in the garden. Now that she was able to move along the path, Lily preferred to spend her days outside, beneath the sun and amongst the plants.

  Rose was there, bending branches of a bush down so Lily might trim them. Bits didn’t know what Rose had told Lily of the morning she’d left, but when she’d shown up at the house later that day, Lily didn’t question why she was no longer in residence. She’d merely said something about men being rather foolish and stupid as a collective whole and then continued on as if nothing was amiss.

  “I’m not asking you to speak to him, or even let him know you’re there. But the entire town is mourning Hattie and looking after the Oberon. No one will think to look after Ezra. Just keep an eye on him, and then report back to me.” The eyes blinking up at Bits were so similar to Ezra’s it made her heart ache. “Please. It’s what Hattie would have wanted.”

  She wanted to say no. Hearing his name was painful enough. She didn’t know if she could bear to look at him. Yet she’d relented. Lily was grieving as much as anyone else. Bits didn’t think she’d been particularly close to Hattie, not the way she was to Alice, and certainly not the way Ezra was to Hattie, but the two had been acquainted the majority of their lives and at one time thought to be sisters one day.

  A piece of wood popped in the pyre, and Bits tightened the grip on the hand she held in her own. With Mrs. Chanse unwilling to accompany Bits to the ceremony, Lily had insisted on sending Rose along for Bits’s protection. What she might need protection from, Lily couldn’t say, but she’d insisted.

  The Bits who lived in London with her sister’s family would have never believed that in the future she would willingly be accompanied by a Sally Maid. Her former self would have laughed if she’d been told one day she would stand side-by-side with one, clinging to it for comfort as she watched the body of one of the few noble women to have ever treated her like a friend be burnt to ash.

  “There is a certain tragic beauty to it, isn’t there? The bright flame against the night’s sky making it impossible to see anything else, only to remember what is being lost.”

  Rose couldn’t respond, of course, but since discovering the truth of who she was, Bits made it a habit to speak to her as if she was the person inside instead of the porcelain face the world could see. Sometimes Lily would reply back for her sister, and sometimes she wouldn’t. Either way, it served as a reminder that inside the Sally Maid was someone relying on Bits to help set her free.

  She could only hope the girl’s faith was not misplaced. Her powers gave her the ability to understand metal and clockwork the same way an artist might understand colors and light. Machines spoke to her in a way others couldn’t hear. Metal obeyed her commands. Cogs that had refuse to budge for decades turned smoothly for her. But her power over them was not absolute.

  Being a Velchan was a rare gift. Some theorized only one Velchan lived at a time and was the literal rebirth of the Roman god. Bits hoped the first wasn’t true, and knew the second wasn’t. She wasn’t a god.

  She wasn’t even a man.

  She’d discovered what she could do on her own, tinkering around in her father’s workshop when she was supposed to be practicing scales on the piano. There had been a set of malformed cogs, and no matter what her father tried, they wouldn’t fit together properly. While her father banged and filed and cursed, the pieces of metal had whispered to Bits. Even as she tried to sleep at night, she could hear them, begging to be made right. So she slipped away from her governess and stole into her father’s shed when he wasn’t there. She’d remembered what her father said about aether, and it had made sense to her, because she always thought she could sense it in the air. With the faulty cogs in front of her, she imagined the aether surrounding the cogs, and in her mind, she saw the way they should be. She knew exactly which pieces had been left too wide and which had been shaved too thin. She imagined the metal shifting, rearranging its structure to the proper size, and then witnessed it happen before her eyes.

  Looking back, it was foolish to not realize how her father would re
act. She’d expected words of praise, and possibly even an extra pudding. Instead, he’d demanded to know what she’d done, and when she showed him, he became more upset than she’d ever seen him.

  Velchans were rare and revered. Historically, Velchans born on English soil served the Crown and were awarded Dukedoms. They won wars and made life better for mankind.

  And they were always, always men.

  Two hundred years ago, a group of Untouched American women were accused of stealing the powers of the Touched through a bargain with the devil. The courts pronounced them guilty of witchcraft, and sentenced them to death. Twenty women died in Salem that year, but the accusations didn’t end there. Bits could remember the story of a housekeeper in Wales who had brewed a tonic for her master when he had a fever. Once the fever broke, the lord of the manor accused her of practicing the Devil’s magic.

  If Henrick had been a Velchan, he would have been the toast of England. But the metal hadn’t spoken to Henrick. It chose Bits, and if anyone knew, she would face the same fate as that poor housekeeper who only wanted to make her master well. At nine, Bits was fairly fearless, but even she balked at the idea of hanging from a rope in the Tower of London.

  So she’d hidden who she was and what she could do. She didn’t train with the great masters. She wasn’t allowed to review the old journals of the Velchans who came before her as was tradition. Instead, she hid in her father’s workshop and learned what she could at the knee of a man who had only thought to do clockwork as a hobby.

  For a while, it was enough. As long as she was fixing and inventing, all was right in the world. But not anymore. She was tired of hiding who she truly was. She was meant to shine like newly polished brass beneath the midday sun, not fade and rust locked away in a workshop where no one would see.

  Giving Rose a second chance at life was the first step in taking the life she was meant to live. For years she’d cowered from Sally Maids, revolted by what they represented and fearful of the men who would murder to keep the industry alive. No more. Freeing the enslaved Touched girls and bringing their makers to justice would become her purpose in life.

  “Everyone is starting to leave,” Vani said from Bits’s right. The younger girl had attached herself to Bits the moment she and Rose stepped out of the carriage. Tonight she wore two different layers of petticoats and a man’s navy jacket.

  At least her corset was beneath her clothes.

  “We will stay,” Bits said. “At least for a while more.” They wouldn’t leave until Ezra did. Another part of her promise to Lily.

  Vani stayed for another quarter hour, surprisingly content to remain in quiet reflection, but then she too left in order to feed Neit and Arawn. Bits and Rose were of the very few who remained. The night was growing chilly, and Bits’s legs and back ached from standing on the hard ground for so long. To distract herself she focused all of her attention on the slant of Ezra’s shoulders and the shadows playing across his face.

  He was weary. Not just tired and grieving, but weary. She wanted to go to him, to wrap him in her arms, and tell him he wasn’t alone. She wanted to sit with him in the parlor, the place where he had made her feel the ultimate pleasure and most wrenching pain, and listen as he remembered the friend he would miss for the rest of his days. She wanted to offer him her strength so he could be weak.

  She wanted him. All of him. Every heartache and every joy. It was more than she deserved, and much more than he would ever willingly give her, but she wanted it all the same.

  Her hand drifted to her stomach. No child grew there. She’d wept when she saw the evidence on her drawers, not realizing how desperately she’d wanted to have a piece of him she could love with her whole heart until the possibility was gone.

  Bits was so lost in her own thoughts she didn’t immediately register that someone new had entered the inner-circle of the henge. In fact, it may have gone completely beneath her notice if Rose had not moved forward, tugging Bits along with her.

  Since Rose never moved without being given an order to do so, Bits’s attention was firmly reactivated.

  “It’s time,” she heard a familiar female voice say.

  Rose gripped her hand even tighter, to the point Bits worried about bruises and crushed bones.

  “Cora, now is not the time.” Ezra’s voice rang out across the still night.

  Bits broke into a run as Cora tossed her unbound hair back behind her shoulders. “I’m afraid now is the only time.”

  And then she crumbled to the ground.

  Chapter 29

  This couldn’t be happening. Not now with Hattie’s pyre still burning bright and his tools and Rose a mile away.

  “What needs to be done?”

  Ezra blinked up at the Oberon who had been his friend since he understood what the word meant. “Hattie…”

  “I need to do something, Ez. So, tell me, what needs to be done?”

  Too much. This was never going to work.

  Damn Cora and her flair for dramatics. She could have warned him. Told him to stay home, or at the least, keep his supplies and Rose nearby.

  “I need to get her back to town,” he said, bending down to check Cora’s pulse. It was there, but just barely. There was very little time. “Someone will need to ride ahead to fetch Chanse and have him meet me at my house.”

  Louis Young, an orphan who now served as a footman for Breena Manor, pushed into the melee. “Will you be needing this, Dr. Nash?” The boy shoved a worn brown leather bag towards him. “Your sister said I should bring it to you. Said you would be needing it.”

  Had Cora gone to his house first? She must have for Lily to have known to send his supplies and equipment. And if she knew to send his things…

  He glanced wildly around, finally finding Rose’s porcelain face moving through the crowd.

  “Change of plans,” he told Jack. “I need someone to bring Chanse here. Now. And clear these people out of here.”

  For a long moment, Jack didn’t move. The flames cast his hair in shades of gold and bronze, making him look like an avenging god. Ezra braced himself for his furious outrage at having his wife’s death rites disgraced, but it never came.

  “Everyone clear out,” Jack bellowed, and immediately feet started shuffling. Louis was sent in search of a fast horse and Thomas Chanse. Hattie’s brothers protested having to leave, but not for long. People often forgot how much power Jack wielded because he was always so carefree and generally an easy fellow to get on with. Tonight, however, that Jack was gone and only the Oberon remained. No one could deny him anything, even if it went against everything they believed to be true and right.

  “Get Rose to the northern stone,” Ezra said, already lifting Cora off the ground. He would place Cora on the southern stone, invoking the fire elements to heal and transform. Rose would face south, appealing to the earth elements who served as the energy source for all life.

  As soon as Cora was properly arranged, Garroway, who Ezra hadn’t even noticed until now, began the cleansing ritual.

  “You go see to the automaton. I can begin here,” Garroway said, pouring water infused with rosemary from a flask onto his good hand as his eyes bled to pure silver.

  Ezra didn’t trust Garroway. He was a man more concerned with wealth and power than the pain and suffering of others. Even without Cora’s warnings, there was something about the man that demanded caution. Yet in this, Ezra was willing to place his full faith in the Healer. If there was one place their views were aligned, it was in that whoever was behind the harvesting of Touched hearts for Sally Maids needed to be stopped. To do that, they would need to free Rose from her metal prison.

  “Here,” he said, taking a bundle of candles from his bag and setting them on the stone near Garroway. “They’ve been made and charged according to the specifications we discussed.”

  Garroway lifted one and ran his hand over the wick, which immediately sparked to life.

  Leaving Cora to Garroway, he made his way to the other s
tone, where Jack had placed Rose. He was too numb to be shocked Jack wasn’t alone.

  If Jack was an avenging god, then Bits was the warrior goddess prepared to meet him head-on. Her face, usually so open and expressive, was tightly drawn in concentration. Strands of hair made black by the night's profound darkness hung around her face, the pins normally used to keep it tamed no match for the wind. She had a piece of sharp metal in one hand and was using it to rip apart Rose's dress.

  "Lady Elizabeth, what in the gods' names are you doing?"

  "I'm attempting to remove this garment, obviously,” she said, not slowing her progress. “I thought to tear it off with my bare hands, but the wool has gotten the best of me. I dare say, this frock is made of sterner stuff than any gown I've ever worn."

  Jack gently pushed Bits aside. "Allow me," he said, rending the fabric in two with one giant tug. The look on Bits's face would have been comical in any other circumstance.

  "Yes, well. That certainly takes care of that." Bits wiped her hands on the skirts of her dress. "Now, Lily was to do a spell. Something that would calm Rose. While investigating the Sally Maid, I discovered a slight electrical component. I believe it generates in the heart, and I worry that a rapid heart rate may very well translate into an increase in electricity. I do believe it would be best if we could keep any and all electrical currents to a minimum. I don't suppose either of you...?"

  "I would need lavender,” Jack said

  Ezra waved in the general direction of Cora and Garroway. “There is some in the bag. And grab some of the candles wrapped in paper.” He’d come prepared for Rose’s anxiety. What he wasn’t prepared for was Bits and how she seemed to know everything that was going on. “How did you know about the electricity?”

  “Lily explained the situation with Rose and asked for my assistance. I’ve been conducting examinations and experiments for the past week.” She wouldn’t look at him. It was no more than what he deserved, but it hurt all the same. “I realize I should have said something to you sooner, and for not doing so I am well and truly sorry, as I am for being here when I’m sure I’m the last person you want to see right now, but I promise you, I will do everything I can to save her.”