The Emperor of Mars

by Patrick Samphire

  “I’m not giving it back to her,” I said, making a decision. “I’m giving it back to the thief.” I wondered what she would think when I did. I realized I was grinning and straightened my face.

  Putty stared at me. “You want to give it to the thief? After she stole it?”

  “We don’t know she stole it,” I said. “All we know is she dropped it. It might have been hers.”

  “Really? What would she be doing with something like this?”

  I peered at it again. “Using it to break in?” I hazarded.

  “Well, we should definitely give it back to her, then,” Putty said sarcastically. “In case there are some more houses to burgle. Maybe you two can run away together and live a life of crime.”

  I glared at my little sister. “You know—” I started.

  But I didn’t get a chance to finish.

  Above us, a window shot up, and Lady Harleston’s head appeared, her long, graying hair loose and tangled over her nightdress. She stared down at us, and we gaped back up at her.

  “Thieves!” she shouted. “Thieves!”

  Hellfire! Hellfire and damnation!

  I put down my head, and we ran.

  2

  The Missing Martian

  By the time Putty and I got home, it was nearly three in the morning. I was exhausted and stinking, I felt like I’d been stamped on by a pack of tramplebeasts, and I was pretty sure I had sandfish crystals stuck in my ear. I bathed as quickly as I could and fell into bed.

  I could have slept most of the morning, but of course I didn’t get the chance. The morning light was barely working its way through my thick curtains when someone hissed “Edward!” in my ear.

  I rolled over and buried my head back in my pillow. “Too early.”

  A hand shook my shoulder. “You have to wake up!”

  I blinked until I could make out the figure leaning over me.

  “Jane?” Why was my oldest sister waking me up so early? Jane never came into my room. I tried to free my legs from the twisted sheet. “Is the house burning down?”

  “You have a new tutor.” She threw a nervous glance across the room, toward the door.

  I let my head flop back on the pillow.

  My tutor’s name was Mr. Davidson, and Papa had employed him yesterday. Until then, I’d been sure I’d gotten away with it. After all, we’d been living in Lunae City for most of an Earth year, and nobody seemed to have noticed that I wasn’t going to school. Papa spent most of his time with his head stuck inside one of his inventions or over at the museum examining the devices we’d found in a dragon tomb. Mama had thrown herself into planning Jane’s social season in Tharsis City like a rhinoceraptor charging into a cluster of grass eels. I’d thought they’d forgotten about me.

  No such luck.

  “I’m going back to sleep,” I croaked.

  “I saw you with him yesterday, but I have not been introduced. Do you not think it wrong that I should not have been introduced?”

  “Oh, you don’t want to know what I think is wrong about this,” I said.

  “He seemed like an amiable young man, did you not think?”

  No, I didn’t. I’d stood there in Papa’s study as Mr. Davidson had recited his qualifications in Latin, Ancient Greek, algebra, and literature, and all I’d been able to imagine was my life being drowned in a sea of books and chalk dust. I might have been bored, but I wasn’t that bored.

  I pushed myself upright.

  “You can’t be in love with him already,” I said. “You haven’t even met him.”

  Jane blushed. “I didn’t say I was in love with him. I said I thought he seemed amiable.”

  I didn’t believe a word of it. Jane fell in love as easily as anyone else would fall over a trip wire. Personally, I couldn’t understand the appeal. Love scrambled people’s brains. Take Olivia—my next-oldest sister—and Cousin Freddie. Cousin Freddie was a secret agent for the British Martian government. He’d been tasked with stopping the machinations of the evil Sir Titus Dane. But the moment he’d set eyes on Olivia, his brains had begun to dribble out of his ears. And Olivia had been just as bad. One second, she was the most sensible, proper person on Mars. The next, she was fighting off thugs and hiking through the Martian wilderness. Love was like a disease, and I was enormously relieved to be immune.

  Jane was showing no signs of leaving.

  “Why exactly did you have to wake me up to tell me this?” I said.

  “You will have to introduce me,” Jane said. “It’s only proper. If a gentleman is to be coming and going in our house, I must be introduced. Imagine what people might say otherwise.”

  All I could imagine was the wonderful sleep I wanted to get back to. I’d been dreaming about something, and it had been a good dream, but now I’d forgotten it.

  “He’s not coming until next week,” I said. “Thank heavens.” I slumped down into my bed again and closed my eyes, hoping that was enough of a hint. “I’ll introduce you then.”

  Jane let out a martyred sigh. “By then he may have met someone else!”

  I grunted and turned my face into the pillow. “That would be tragic.”

  “I’m so glad you agree!” Jane said brightly. “I knew you would understand. That is why I went to Papa’s study, borrowed his paper, and wrote a message asking Mr. Davidson to attend this very morning.”

  My eyes popped open again and my mouth worked soundlessly. Jane had snuck into Papa’s study and forged a letter? Jane?

  “Parthenia delivered it last night,” she said.

  “But … No … What?” I stuttered. “I thought Putty was making that up.”

  “Come on, Edward!” Jane said. “You have to get up.”

  I stared at her. My brain was not working properly this morning. “Why do I have to get up?”

  “Because Mr. Davidson will be here in fifteen minutes, and you have to introduce me right away.” She looked mutinous. “I’m not leaving until you agree.”

  I let out an exhausted sigh. “Fine. You win. But I’m not going to forget this. Now, at least let me get dressed?”

  * * *

  When we’d moved to Lunae City, Papa’s business had been struggling. He was very good at making machines but not much good at making money from them. He’d spent most of what we had rebuilding our house at Valles Marineris after Freddie and I had blown it up. The only place Papa had been able to afford in Lunae City and which was big enough for Mama was this one, and that was only because absolutely no one else wanted to live in it.

  Most people called it “the Flame House,” because it looked more like a fire than a house. Or maybe because the best thing anyone could have done with it was to burn it down. It had been built by a wealthy Englishman, Sir William Flanders. When Sir William had first arrived in Lunae City, he’d been so impressed by the native Martian buildings with their twists and spirals and jutting spines that he’d decided to build a house just like them. Unfortunately, he had absolutely no idea what he was doing, and he hadn’t noticed that most of the elaborate twirls on native Martian buildings were up on the roofs, where they wouldn’t get in anyone’s way. By the time it was finished, the Flame House was a complete disaster, and Sir William had run out of money to do anything about it.

  Nothing in the Flame House made any sense at all. No two rooms were on the same level, corridors ended abruptly in walls (and, in one unfortunate case, in a door that opened into thin air four floors up), and every single room was a different shape. To get from my room to Olivia’s room next door, for example, I had to go along a wobbly, sloping corridor in the wrong direction, up a ladder to the attic, back down some stairs, along another corridor, and squeeze through a narrow gap into an abandoned music room, before I could finally reach her. Generally, the best way to get anywhere was to go back to the front door and start over again.

  By the time I’d gotten dressed and made it safely to the entrance hall, I was in no mood to meet anyone. My stomach was rumbling like a land shark and
I could still feel the sandfish crystals in my ear. I should just skip this whole ridiculous plan of Jane’s and get some breakfast. I licked my lips. Eggs. Kippers. Toast. Fried slumber-plant. I could smell them. I headed for the breakfast room.

  But I’d only made it two steps when a hand reached out from behind a pillar and grabbed me. I stumbled back, right into Jane, who was skulking in the shadows, a nervous expression tightening her face.

  “I thought you weren’t going to make it!” she hissed.

  I shot a longing look toward the breakfast room. Those eggs weren’t going to eat themselves.

  The doorbell sounded, loud and clear. Too late. Blast! I grimaced as our new ro-butler glided smoothly past. No getting away from this now.

  My tutor was a thin man with a too-small face and dirty brown hair. Every time he glanced at me, he made a face like he’d looked down and realized he’d forgotten to put on his trousers that morning.

  “Mr. Tobias Davidson,” the ro-butler announced. “Tutor. To see Professor Sullivan.”

  I stepped out in front of him and cleared my throat.

  “May I introduce my sister, Miss Sullivan? Jane, this is Mr. Davidson.”

  “I am so pleased to make your acquaintance, Mr. Davidson,” Jane said, curtseying. She offered him her sweetest smile, the smile that had made a hundred young men fall instantly in love with her.

  Mr. Davidson glanced distractedly around. “Delighted,” he said. “Please excuse me. I am summoned to see your father.” With that, he tipped his hat at her, stepped past, and followed the ro-butler.

  Jane stared after him, aghast.

  I’d never seen anything like it. Jane trapped young men like a sky-spider trapped bear-snakes. Young men met her. They fell in love. That was it.

  But not Mr. Davidson.

  The moment he disappeared, Jane was at my side.

  “Oh, Edward. It’s over!” She grabbed my jacket. “He didn’t notice me. I am too old. I shall die a spinster.”

  “You’re only twenty,” I said, wriggling free of her grip.

  “Twenty!” she cried. “Mama always said this would happen. She said I must capture a gentleman before it was too late, or I should be forced to settle, like she did.”

  “Mama didn’t settle for Papa,” I said. “He was the only one of her suitors who ever really loved her. And she loves him, too. Anyway, I’m sure Mr. Davidson just wanted to make a good impression on Papa. What did your letter say?”

  Jane straightened. “It was rather urgent.”

  “There you are. I’m sure he’ll pay you more attention next time, when he’s not so worried about what Papa wants. And at least you’ve been introduced now.”

  With luck, by the time Mr. Davidson took up his duties next week, Jane would have fallen in love with some other young man instead.

  “There, there,” I said helpfully.

  Now, at last, I could get some breakfast.

  But when I reached the breakfast room, Putty was crouched on the window ledge, staring in through the glass at me. I thought about ignoring her, but Putty was a very hard person to ignore. With a sigh, I crossed to the window and pulled it up.

  “What are you doing?”

  Putty slid in and dropped to the floor. “Looking for you. I knew you’d be here.”

  “Brilliant deduction. And at breakfast time, too. Is there something wrong with the door?”

  “I’m avoiding Miss Wilkins.”

  Miss Wilkins was Putty’s governess. Putty had had a dozen governesses since we’d come to Lunae City. Most of them hadn’t lasted more than a week, but Miss Wilkins had been here over a month and showed no signs of giving in. I’d never met anyone so strict. Miss Wilkins was about as movable as a granite wall, and Putty had been butting her head against her without making a dent. All I could say was that I was glad she wasn’t my governess.

  “Are you coming?” Putty said, bouncing impatiently from foot to foot.

  “Coming where?” Had we agreed to go somewhere? I didn’t remember it, but I’d been distracted by my run-in with the thief last night.

  Putty rolled her eyes. “To see Captain Sadalius Kol, of course. He’s in the garden.”

  “He is?”

  Captain Kol owned a riverboat that carried goods up and down the Martian Nile and along the network of ancient canals that crisscrossed the Lunae Planum desert. When Sir Titus Dane had kidnapped my parents and Jane, he had sent his accomplice, Dr. Octavius Blood, to prevent any pursuit. Captain Kol and his crew had saved us from Dr. Blood’s hunting machines. They had taken us on board their boat, fed us, and carried us all the way to Lunae City so we could rescue Mama, Papa, and Jane.

  “I didn’t even know he was back in town.”

  “That’s because you were too busy vine-mining.” She shot me a hard glance. “Without me. Anyway, if he wasn’t back in town, how would he be in the garden? Mama won’t let him in the house.”

  I stared at her. “Mama won’t let him in?”

  “She said we couldn’t have his sort here in case Mrs. Lewis saw him.”

  Mrs. Lewis was Mama’s biggest rival in Lunae City, and they were constantly trying to outdo each other. But this was too much.

  “His sort?” Captain Kol was a native Martian, and I knew how most British Martians treated the native Martians, but even so, didn’t Mama have any shame? We’d all be dead without him.

  “Come on, Edward. It’s urgent.”

  I shot a last, longing look at the breakfast. “I don’t suppose we could use the door, could we?”

  Putty swung her legs back out over the windowsill and dropped to the red Martian grass below.

  “No, well, I didn’t think so,” I muttered.

  I followed her awkwardly out and across the lawn.

  Captain Kol was waiting in the small, artificial Martian wilderness by the river. He rose from the bench as we approached.

  Even though we’d lived in Lunae City for eight months, I still hadn’t gotten used to how tall the native Martians were. In the unknown thousands of years they’d lived on Mars, with its weak gravity, they had become a race of tall, elongated people. They looked as though they might snap in two at the slightest breath of wind, but I’d seen Captain Kol and his crew haul about boxes and bales with ease. When I’d tried to shift one myself, I’d scarcely been able to move it.

  I’d been trying to learn the dialect of native Martian spoken in Lunae City, but I still hadn’t managed to pick up more than a couple dozen phrases. Captain Kol’s English was better than when I’d first met him, but even so, we had to rely on Putty to translate.

  Captain Kol looked grave as we exchanged greetings.

  “I had hoped to find your cousin here,” he said.

  “Freddie?” I said. “I think he’s still trying to track down Dr. Blood. I don’t know where he is.”

  Freddie had gone after Dr. Blood the moment Sir Titus Dane had been defeated, but as far as I knew, he still hadn’t caught him. Dr. Blood had seemed harmless, just a small, fussy, pedantic little man obsessed with his rocks and Ancient Mars. But he’d been ruthless. He’d crashed our airship, then his machines had pursued us relentlessly, and he was still out there.

  “Then I must ask you for help,” Captain Kol said.

  I frowned. “You know we’d do anything for you. What is it? Putty said it was urgent.”

  Captain Kol nodded. “You remember my crewman, Rothan Gal?”

  “He was the one who told us all that history of Mars,” Putty said.

  I did remember him. While we’d sat recovering on the deck of the boat on the long journey on Martian canals and down the Martian Nile, Rothan Gal had often sat next to Putty, telling her elaborate tales of Ancient Mars. His English had been much better than most of the sailors, but I hadn’t really paid attention. We’d only just survived an airship crash and fleeing across wilderness. All I’d wanted to do was rest.

  “I suppose,” I said.

  “Did you know,” Putty said, “the old emperors of
Mars used to build barges, and then when the Inundation came, they would float downriver with their dragons at their feet to intimidate people? That’s how they kept their power. Rothan Gal told us, don’t you remember?”

  I looked blank.

  “I knew you weren’t listening!”

  “I was half drowned at the time,” I said. When Captain Kol and his crew had dragged me out of the canal, I’d swallowed more water than a whale. “Anyway, don’t get ideas. There aren’t any dragons or Martian emperors anymore, and when the Inundation comes, all we’ll get is wet feet.”

  Putty pouted, and I turned back to Captain Kol. “Has something happened to Rothan Gal?” I hadn’t listened much to his stories, but I’d liked him. I’d liked all the native Martian sailors. We might only have spent a week with Captain Kol and his crew, but they were like family.

  “I fear it has,” Captain Kol said. “Two days ago, Rothan Gal entered the Museum of Martian Antiquities. Nobody has seen him since.”

  “You think something happened to him there?” I said. “Something bad?”

  The captain shrugged. “I do not know. I have been to the museum. The curators there will not talk to a native Martian about his missing friend. But I know that he entered the museum and I know that no one saw him emerge. I had hoped Freddie could ask questions there.”

  “I’ll do it,” I said. “I know most of the curators.” Papa worked part-time at the museum researching the artifacts from our dragon tomb.

  The museum was never busy, but there were plenty of curators and it was a public place. Why would someone do something to Rothan Gal there, where anyone might see them? If I wanted to jump someone, I’d do it in a dark alley or in the crowded streets of Lunae City, where no one would notice in the crush of bodies.

  “Why was he in the museum?” I said.

  Captain Kol frowned. “Why would he not be?”

  “I just … I mean … I didn’t think he’d be interested.” I grimaced. I was sounding like an idiot.