And, worse still, there were those who were clever enough, and greedy enough as well, to feel they should have such a wonder as Julia themselves. People like Sabatino Nucci and his father. They both had that glimmer of lust in their eyes, that special look you saw in merchants, bankers and thieves.
Not the same look when a man saw Letitia Louise-that was a look quite different from anything else.
And what, Finn wondered, was he to make of the dinner table scene between Calabus and Sabatino? Whatever that was about, the son had nearly come unraveled when the tipsy old man had begun to speak of some invention of his own.
That, and the bizarre business of Hatters and Hooters. Finn would be glad to put it all behind him in the morning, and never look back. If, he reminded himself, that idiot didn't run him through at dawn. Strangely enough, he felt totally detached from that event, as if it were so ridiculous it could never come about.
Finn was certain he'd never sleep, but it wasn't long before he did. And, not long after that, he came fully awake again, and sat up in the bed.
The house creaked and groaned like a shaky old man, but this was a different kind of sound. A hoot was what it was, or a lot of hoots at once, like a flock of noisy owls. Only these weren't owls, he knew, but a pack of maniacs.
Beetles and Bones, what was wrong with these people? Why couldn't they act like the civilized folk back home? Granted, the prince, and the princes before him, had been at war with neighbors for seven hundred years, but nearly every kingdom did that. A war was a totally different thing. It wasn't about a bunch of crazies in yellow hats, or another bunch that howled at the moon. This sort of thing made no sense at all …
“Letitia, are you awake, dear?”
“I am now, Finn.”
“I'm sorry. I heard them. The Hooters. I wondered if you heard them too.”
“No, I didn't. As you guessed, I was asleep. I was dreaming about thistleberry pie. It was bubbling over, and sugary drops were sizzling on the stove. The juice made little hissing sounds as it came up through the crust. Oh, Finn, what do you want? Please tell me and let me get back, before that pie is gone.”
Finn ran his fingers across her cheek. “I feel very bad about this, Letitia, don't make me feel any worse. I'm glad we didn't eat that fish. I am not at all sure it wasn't spoiled. I don't think even if you're dead, you're supposed to look like that.”
Letitia yawned and stretched. “Food that looks bad begins to look good when your tummy starts making funny sounds. Did you ever think of that?”
“I'm hungry too, you know.”
“I'm sure you are, Finn. Good night again.”
Letitia leaned over, gave him a peck on the cheek, plopped down and faced the other way.
“I've been thinking,” Finn said, “about the future and the past. This vacation, though it hasn't been a great deal of fun so far, has brought some ideas to mind, things sort of rattling about in my head.
“You've brought a lot into my life, Letitia. I'm a different man than I was before. I was just drifting in my craft, doing some of this, some of that. I made lizards that blow on the fire, lizards you could put the garbage in. A skinny lizard to poke in your musket and clean the barrel out. Captain what's-his-name, you remember him, the Balloon Grenadiers. He had a thing for you, which doesn't much matter, since he's quite dead now.
“Anyway, he gave me the idea for that. Sold a lot of them, too. I can likely sell more, since the war shows very little sign of slowing down.
“That's off the subject, though, or maybe not. It wasn't very easy selling lizards when I first thought them up. Folks would say, ‘What on earth is that, what's it for?’ I really didn't get off the ground until the bug-snatcher came along. Now that caught on very quickly. That tongue leaping out all the time seemed to frighten little children, but they soon got over that. People didn't like to empty it, of course, and I can't blame them, I suppose.
“By the way, that's where I got the idea for the dirt-sucker, dear. That went quite well. After that, things went downhill awhile with Lizards-for-the-Blind. One can't be right all the time, and no one was badly hurt.
“All this, Letitia, is what got me thinking. You simply can't stand still, you've got to try-even if something goes wrong. And that's what I did, and that's how Julia came to be. After I made her, everything else seemed rather tame. It was something no one had ever done, something so different I can't ever tell anyone except you. I made a creature out of seventeen kinds of metal, elements common and rare. Then I put the ferret's brain in. I don't know why I did that, I just did.
“It scared the hell out of me, too. Shar and Dankermain got hung three hundred years back for doing much the same-making human-like creatures out of animals, and giving them the power to think.
“I'm awfully glad they did Newlies, dear, because now I have you. Of course, they did it with magic, and I just fiddled around with scraps and tiny gears. It's not the same thing, but who'd believe that? Why, they'd put a noose around my neck and cut me up in pieces, just like those crazy seers.
“What was I saying, now? Yes, about the future, what I want to do next. Did I say it scared me when I finished Julia Jessica Slagg? It did, but it had another effect as well. It made me see what could be done, what unbelievable worlds could be explored. It was our misadventure with Count Onjine and his Yowlies-I know you won't forget that. At any rate, it was there I learned that Julia could actually see the tiny bit of poison in the jeweled lizard that would have killed the prince if we hadn't stopped the Count in time. It was a thing no human could ever see, and it struck me that if Julia could learn to craft devices so small, what's to keep those near invisible machines from making smaller devices still?
“What a marvel that would be! I was dizzy at the thought, and I'm often dizzy still.
“This is what I wished to tell you, dear. I should have mentioned it before, but with the trouble at sea, and our odd predicament here … Anyway, do you think me fevered, love? Some sort of vain, crack-brained fellow whose dreams have taken him over the brink, like the poor hapless loonies in a dark asylum somewhere? If you believe that's so, I wish you'd tell me, please. Don't hold back for fear I'll be crushed, for I'm not as proud as that.
“Please, Letitia. I need your honest thoughts on this. We have not been together long, but I feel we've seen the birth of a deep and meaningful relationship. So, do you think you've given your love to a man with some wits about him, or a hopeless buffoon?
“Letitia?
“Letitia Louise …?”
14
Finn sat up. Letitia snored lightly, a lock of hair rising on her cheek with every peaceful breath.
“Beads and Weeds, dear, I can't believe you'd do this to me. It's inconsiderate, is what it is. I really feel you should apologize.”
“You lull her to sleep with your babble, and you want an apology to boot?”
Julia gave a tinny chuckle from her perch across the room. “You nearly put me under, and I've never been asleep in my life.”
“You didn't have to listen. Everything I say isn't directed at you.”
“Everything you talked about is me. It's nothing we haven't discussed before. I am always loathe to agree with you, Finn. You have a sizeable head as it is. In this case, though, I quite approve. Delving into the microscopic world is a bold, exciting idea. If, as I have learned, the world is made of Earth, Air, Sky and Water, what indeed are those things made of?
“Of all the tomes on your shelves, I find the ones on the philosophy of the cosmos the most intriguing of all.
“I feel we understand each other, Finn. It's no great secret that you irritate me quite a bit. You think too much of yourself, you strut about like every human male I've seen- noble, merchant, soldier and commoner alike. Including, I might add, the dead, who seem no wiser in one state of being than the next.
“Still, we can do some quite interesting things together, in spite of your failings. Even if you're slow in your thinking, I have to say you had the wi
t to make me, and I give you much credit for that.
“One thing, though, Finn. And this we haven't talked about. We can make things smaller, and doubtless smaller still. If we do, though, why? I am quite fascinated with the effort, the drama of discovery, the thrill of the chase. But I see little sense in the result. What good will tiny things do? What on earth could you use them for?
“You couldn't sell them, for no one's fool enough to buy a thing they can't even see. And surely they'd be stepped on all the time, or simply blow away. Like so many good ideas, I fear this one lacks any value except as an oddity, a curiosity of sorts. Has this perhaps occurred to you?
“Finn?
“Finn …?”
15
The winds picked up as a gale swept in from the sea. Rain pounded on the twenty-nine roofs, roofs of slate and shale, roofs of wood and thatch, roofs that leaned sideways, roofs that were steep and roofs that were flat.
Rain rattled on the eighty-four windows, windows made of paper, windows made of slats, even, on occasion, windows made of glass.
The house creaked and groaned, trembled and shivered in the wind. Thunder rolled like boulders through the frenzied sky. Lightning painted Finn and Letitia's room with strobic fits of light.
The light struck Julia's ruby eyes, shimmered on her tin and copper scales. Julia didn't care. Julia didn't move. It was night, and there was no one she wanted to talk to, nowhere she wanted to go. At times such as this, listening was her favorite thing to do. When Julia cared to listen, she could hear a vast array of sounds. Sounds from the low scales, sounds from the high. Now, she could hear spiders walking in the walls, hear moths chewing on the rugs out in the hall. If she wanted, she could hear the little clicks and the whirs, the tiny cogs and gears within her metal shell. She had learned, though, to set those sounds aside, unless something went awry. Then, she would fix the problem, or complain about it to Finn.
She could hear, not far away, the vile sounds humans made, playing their Hooter game. A game, she knew, from other sounds she heard, that often brought pain, and even death itself.
She wondered, idly, why these maniacs stayed out in the rain. People and Newlies didn't rust, but why would they want to get wet? She wondered, too, if these fools, like the others, wore some peculiar kind of hat?
Julia stopped hearing in the regular, ordinary way, dropped into a state where she could listen, totally aware, but simply not there.
Finn snored.
Letitia breathed.
Termites ate the wood.
Something slithered softly through the grass.
Something came in the door down below and started up the stairs …
Julia came awake with a start. She was not in the there anymore, she was back, in the here. And here, there was something very much amiss, something that set every golden cog astir, set every wheel abuzz, tingled every gear, every wire, thin as beetle hair.
It was not just the sounds, though the sounds were very clear. Julia had a metal body, metal snout and metal tail, but she had a real brain, taken from a ferret dying in a trap. The ferret was a sly and cunning creature, and it sensed things that humans didn't see. Now that it was part of Julia, it was even quicker, even more aware of sounds that meant danger, smells that meant fear.
There was something else too, from that something on the stairs, something that rattled Julia's scales and lit her ruby eyes; a raw and savage hatred that cut the night air, an anger and a loathing so brutal and intense that Julia shrank away, shut it out at once …
While all this was surging through her head, one second turned to two, and before it got to three, Julia was across the stone floor with scarcely a rattle or a scratch, and up on Finn's chest.
Finn woke.
Not with a start as most anyone would, faced with ruby eyes staring in his face, toothy snout poking at his chin. Finn was not surprised at such intrusions anymore, only vexed, irritated, irked to no end.
“Up,” Julia whispered, like the wind through a broken window pane, “Sword and dagger both. No time for boots, scarcely time for pants. Something's in the hall with murder in its head …!”
Finn took a breath, yanked on his pants, jammed his weapons in his belt. Took one step, and froze on the spot.
A blood-chilling scream shattered the silent night. Not just a scream but another after that. Screams, groans, curses and growls. Sounds of assault, terrible howls.
Letitia sat up straight, eyes big as biscuits, throwing off the sheet, baring lovely private parts.
“Stay down. Cover up. No, wait. Get under the bed. Stay there and don't come out.”
“Finn, just what is going on out there?”
“I don't know. Do what I said.”
Letitia didn't. He didn't think she would.
Finn drew his dagger and his sword, stepped back, and threw open the door.
Whatever he'd expected, it surely wasn't there. Everything else was there instead. Thirty-seven things seemed to happen at once. In the dim corridor, it was hard to sort anything out.
Sabatino Nucci stood barefoot in the hall, crouched in a fighter's deadly stance, lashing his sword about. Facing him were two wiry creatures dressed entirely in black. Black vests and boots. Silky black sashes, baggy pantaloons. Black hoods covered their features, black scarves wound about their necks.
Finn wondered why they bothered with this frightening wear. Even in the dim half-dark, their sharp Foxer noses were quite clear. Their ears made little black tents in the fabric, as if their heads were camping out.
From the corner of his eye, Finn saw Sabatino's father, moaning on the floor behind his son, kicking his legs, and flailing all about. For whatever reason, the old man was naked once again.
And, from the other corner of his eye, Finn saw a scene even more bizarre. Just at the top of the stairs, Squeen William backed against the rail where the steps went up instead of down. Squeen had one furry foot on the floor, one atop a bearded, filthy old man. The man was making meaningless sounds, and frothing at the mouth. Squeen was holding off a third Foxer, beating his withered wings, flailing at his foe with the leg of a broken chair. Clearly, he was trying to save the old man who was doing all he could to shake his benefactor free.
Finn absorbed this whole chaotic scene in the blink of an eye, then waded right in. He had no quarrel with Foxers, but poor Squeen was no match for a creature with a sword.
The Foxer saw Finn, and the greater danger, and turned away from Squeen. Finn wasted little time at all on posture, grace and style. He parried the creature's first pass, knocked the weapon from his hand, struck its bottom with the flat of his sword, and kicked the fellow howling down the stairs.
“You all right, Squeen? You hurt or anything?”
“No, issss bees fine, sssir. Ssssqueen bees thankin' you much.”
“You're most welcome, I'm sure.” Finn glanced over his shoulder at Sabatino. For the moment, he was clearly holding his own.
“Who's that on the floor, Squeen William? He doesn't look healthy at all.”
Squeen showed him a foolish Vampie grin. “Issss nobodyss, ssssir. Isss sssmelly old man.”
“I can tell that much on my own. It isn't what I asked.”
“Be damned with you, craftsman,” Sabatino shouted, “give me a bloody hand here!”
“Sorry,” Finn said, “be right along.”
He turned then, to the Foxer on Sabatino's right. He had caught Sabatino's glance, and was coming straight at Finn. Finn parried, and quickly backed him against the far wall. His hood had come loose in the fight, and Finn could see his prominent nose and pointy ears, his startling, lemon-colored eyes. He was not an animal now, but his ancestral traits were quite clear.
This second opponent was better than the first. He liked to go after Finn's face, cut and whip about the eyes. It was irritating, like batting at silver flies. The fellow didn't like body work, and didn't watch his own too well. Finn gave him a swipe about the groin, and scared the intruder to death. He brought dow
n his sword to guard his parts, and Finn drew a thin red line across his chest. The Newlie howled in pain, dropped his blade and ran.
“Didn't mean to get you up, Finn,” Sabatino said, backing the lone Foxer down the hall. “Know you and the lady need your sleep and all.”
Finn let the words go by. Sabatino couldn't say ‘hello’ without impertinent intent.
Sabatino's foe tired quickly. His weapon was drooping, his lemon eyes were full of doubt and fear.
Sabatino laughed, cut the fellow twice on his prominent nose, and notched his ear. Like his comrade, this one had clearly had enough. With a snarl and a bark, he backed away and stumbled down the stairs.
“A Newlie will fight till he gets a little cut,” Sabatino said. “Then the sorry louts will turn tail.” He squinted at the point of his blade, then spoke without looking at Finn.
“Your face is clear as glass, craftsman. You'd best stay away from games of chance.”
Finn looked puzzled. “I'm afraid you have the best of me. I don't know what you're talking about.”
“Newlies, friend. Present company in your room there excepted, of course. I've found them to be cowards, every one. Back down from a human every time. Worst of the lot are the Foxer trash. Them and the Bowser lot. Got a bunch of 'em here. Ought to run 'em all off.”
“You seem to have a problem, sir. I've noticed that before.”
He knew he ought to stop right there, but the words came all the same. “Especially, I recall, if they're young and unarmed.”
“That little pup on the ship?” Sabatino showed no offense at all, beyond a nasty smile. “You do have the stomach to bring it up. Hurrah for you. Don't waste your time goading me tonight, Finn. I'll run a blade through your low-born heart at first light.”
Sabatino glanced at his father, who'd gone to sleep on the floor.
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