Chains of Silver: a YA Theater Steampunk Novel (Alchemy Empire Book 1)

by Meredith Rose

  We finally reached the railing, but I didn’t stop, not until the ledge widened. I heaved several sobs, gulping in air. Then I forced myself to pull it together again, and kept dragging her, past the stone steps, around the curve away from the river, to the drainage tunnel. The water level was higher here too, from the overflow off the river, but there wasn’t much of a current.

  I propped Delphine against the curved side of the tunnel and collapsed beside her. Now the tears broke free, and I shuddered, my cries echoing off the damp bricks. I felt along her neck for a pulse, not expecting to find one. But I did. She was still alive.

  I cried harder.

  I couldn’t leave her, but I wasn’t strong enough to pull her up the stone steps. And who knew what further damage I’d already inflicted on her?

  The transceiver. I wrapped my hand around the device on my left wrist. I didn’t know how well the transceiver would work below ground, or if it had gotten too wet to work. But if I could tell Thea and Raymond where we were, they could get help.

  Before I could try to send a message, a growling hiss sounded behind me. I jumped.

  Turning, I saw a full grown sewer alligator only a few feet from us.

  I couldn’t breathe or even move for a moment. Then I fumbled for my pepper-spray.

  “Go on!” I shouted at it. “Get out of here!” I sprayed, but mostly missed him.

  I tried to scramble to my feet, but it was the wrong decision. The alligator lunged for me. Its jaws clamped onto my foot. Stabbing pain shot up my leg and through my body. I screamed. I fell back to the ground, and the alligator yanked backward, dragging me into the water. The pain fogged my brain, but only briefly. Then, the mist seemed to clear, and all I wanted was to survive.

  It dragged me further into the stream, its head now too covered in water to make the pepper-spray effective. I pressed the button of the claw cuff on my wrist. The blades sprang out along my fingers. Every movement I made sent a fresh wave of agony bursting from my trapped leg, but I was careful not to pull against the beast. If it started to spiral into its “death roll” I would lose the leg at the very least, and probably my life.

  Hand fisted, exposing the bladed claws, I leaned toward the alligator. Taking aim, I drew a breath. I plunged the blades into the beast’s eyes.

  A guttural scream tore through it. I yanked my hand out of its flesh, its blood dripping down the metal and across my fist. The alligator’s jaws released, and I dragged my bloodied leg from its mouth. I scrambled backward, hoping it would retreat and slink away into the water.

  It charged me again. This time, I met it head-on, crawling on all fours toward it. I swiped at it again with my claws, tearing a new gash across its snout. It growled, but stumbled back.

  Again, it attacked. I cried out as I lunged toward it. My blades struck its jaw, but they weren’t big enough to seriously wound it, unless I could stab its eyes again. If it didn’t give up soon, I feared I’d become too tired to keep fighting. But I was determined it wouldn’t get to Delphine. She’d already suffered enough.

  Just when I thought it would attack a fourth time, a large, dark form tumbled over my head and landed between me and the alligator.

  A man, shirtless and familiar. His trousers were torn, and there were gashes across his muscled back.

  “Dietrich!” I screamed.

  He didn’t respond. I saw the flash of a knife in his left fist. The alligator snapped at him. Charged him, but he dodged to the side, and the half-blinded animal lurched past him along the edge of the water.

  Dietrich dropped on top of the alligator. He wrapped his arms around the beast, snapping his left arm upward in a plunging motion. The beast screamed.

  It thrashed, its cries gurgling in the reddening water. Dietrich held on. Gradually, the thrashing turned to twitching and then stilled completely.

  Dietrich rolled off the dead alligator and rinsed the blood from his hand and the knife. He stowed the knife in a scabbard attached to his leg. Then he crawled toward me.

  I didn’t try to stop the tears now. “I thought you had drowned.”

  He shook his head, his chest heaving. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  I held out my arms to embrace him, but then I saw the claw. Blood and gore covered it, and I suddenly felt sick to my stomach. Dietrich quickly unfastened the cuff and rinsed it the best he could in the stream. The water was dirty, but it was better than having to look at the evidence of my fight.

  “You were impressive,” he told me. “Any sane alligator would have run from you as fast as it could.”

  I laughed, a sort of high-pitched, slightly-hysterical giggle. “No, you’re the impressive one—showing up out of nowhere like an avenging angel of alligator doom.”

  “I was able to pull myself to shore not far from where we found Delphine. It just took awhile to make it back upstream. When I saw what you were about here—I…was scared. I don’t mind admitting it. I was terrified it would kill you before I could stop it. But you were a warrior, Gia. Such a warrior.”

  I had been attacked. And I’d fought back. Maybe it was only an alligator, and not an evil man, but I had still fought. Dietrich was right—I’d been a warrior. New strength, like hot lava, bubbled in me. “Thank you.” I nodded to Delphine. “She’s pretty tough herself. I can’t believe she’s still alive. But we need to get help quickly.”

  “I can carry her above ground. Are you able to walk?”

  I drew in a breath. “I will force myself to walk. We have to get out of here.”

  While Dietrich picked up Delphine again, I pulled myself painfully to stand. A groan escaped me. Dietrich gave me a look of such compassion, I felt as if he were trying to share my pain again. “I’m fine,” I told him. “It hurts, but at least I have a foot. I’ll manage.”

  Limping, my leg feeling like it was on fire, I led the way toward the stone steps once more. I used the transceiver to send a message to Thea. I only hoped she could remember well enough where the park was so that we could be found.

  Found before it was too late to save Delphine.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  As it turned out, it was quicker for Dietrich to hire a public carriage than wait for Thea, Raymond, and Nadine to arrive. I think he was hoping to find an arachnicab since they provided a much smoother ride. But he found the carriage first, and we didn’t have time to wait.

  Through the transceiver, Thea and I arranged for them to go straight to Lucy Davies’ and meet us. Our carriage rattled along the still-wet streets, and I couldn’t take my eyes off Delphine’s unmoving form, cradled by Dietrich who attempted to shield her from the worst bumps. He and I didn’t speak much, only to ask each other “How are you doing?” and try to assure the other that we were all right.

  Of course we weren’t all right—he had no shirt and multiple cuts and scrapes. I had a nice set of alligator tooth imprints in my leg. The bleeding seemed to have slowed, but every movement of the carriage sent new spasms through me. I’d been through worse, different kinds of pain. I knew how to keep it from overwhelming me. In the past, I’d retreat to my Quiet World. But this time, I focused on Delphine and Dietrich—determined to stay present in this world no matter how much it hurt.

  It took another twenty minutes to reach Lucy Davies’ house. When we arrived, Dietrich gently pulled a wallet from the pocket of his coat still wrapped around Delphine so that he could pay the carriage driver. He also gave the man the address of the Alchemy Empire Theater.

  “If you speak with Master Cyrus Fenrey there, he will arrange to have your carriage cleaned from our injuries. We greatly appreciate your aid to us, and so will he.” Dietrich spoke to the driver as if the man were practically an aristocrat.

  I was proud of Dietrich. Getting blood and river water cleaned from the carriage would cost the driver a bit of money that he probably didn’t have. Most people would have considered this the driver’s concern, but Dietrich had a way of caring about everyone from the unconscious girl in his a
rms to the lowly driver trying to make a living.

  When Lucy met us in her entryway, she took one look at the three of us and immediately started rolling up her sleeves. “Good lord in heaven, you look as if you’ve just walked off the battlefield.”

  “We rather have, I’m afraid,” Dietrich said.

  The stabbing ache in my leg had only gotten worse during the walk from the carriage, up the steps, and into the healer’s house. Now that we were here, it was as if my body had decided enough was enough. My legs buckled, and I fell to the floor.

  “Minx!” Dietrich turned, but with his arms full of Delphine, there was nothing he could do to help me.

  “I’m fine,” I told him, cradling my injured limb. “Take care of her, and come back for me. I’m not going anywhere.”

  Lucy gave me a piercing glance but then led Dietrich and Delphine off to her exam room. I scooted back against the wall, leaned my head on the plaster surface, and tried to relax. A trio of hot tears escaped from my eyes, but other than that, I refused to fall apart. We were safe now. Delphine would be all right. And I would be too, once someone had a chance to see to my leg. I was just grateful to still be in possession of it. It could easily have been an alligator’s dinner.

  A few minutes later, Dietrich returned, along with a woman whose light blue dress and white apron identified her as a healer’s assistant.

  “How is Delphine?” I studied their faces, hoping for reassurance.

  “Lu is with her,” Dietrich said. “It’s going to be awhile.” He crouched next to me and slid his arms underneath me.

  “I can walk,” I protested.

  “Oh, clearly you can.” He lifted me, and I put my arm around his neck, hoping I wasn’t hitting any scrapes or bruises. This carrying bit was becoming a habit with the boys in my life. Much more of it, and my feet would start acting like two spoiled princesses—demanding foot rubs, hot mineral baths, fragrant oils. No more boots, no more wool stockings. And definitely no more alligators.

  Dietrich followed the assistant down the hall to a small room across from the servant staircase. The assistant pointed to a dark leather exam table covered with a white sheet, and Dietrich set me down gently on it.

  The assistant pulled a device on caster wheels over to the table and pushed a button on the knobby control panel. With a belch of steam and a whir of gears, the machine came to life. Slender brass and steel arms unbent like a tangle of spider legs.

  “Isn’t that one of those Heal On Demand machines?” Dietrich asked. The machines had become popular the last five years as a way to supplement the limited supply of healers.

  The assistant’s mouth tightened sourly. “It’s a Transamplexus Autocuration Rehabilitator, yes.” She said it in the same way I often corrected Thea for calling the transceivers “yapper tappers.”

  Warm kinship welled in me. Anyone who valued the importance of using correct words for technology was all right in my book, even if she did look as if she had lemon juice for blood.

  She inserted my injured leg into a set of leather straps far more gently than I’d expected of her.

  “Pay attention,” she told Dietrich, “the TAR converts any kind of magic into healing magic and then calibrates its energy to fit whatever injuries it is presented with. You’ll have to run it because Mistress Davies needs my assistance.”

  While she spoke, she turned dials and more knobs on the machine until its arms perched on my leg like a giant insect sunning itself.

  “You put your hand on the energy intake panel here and press the start button. The machine will transfuse your magic, and when this light flashes—” She pointed to an amber-tinted bulb. “—you should be able to slide off her boot because the swelling will have gone down. You’ll need to clean the whole leg with this solution.” She thunked a glass bottle off a shelf and onto a countertop and set some clean cloths beside it. “Once you’re done, then press this green button and the TAR will resume its cycle. You should put the leg back in the harness, but you won’t need to reposition the sensors—they’ll return to this position on their own. If you mess it up, you’ll have to send for me—I’ll be with Mistress Davies and the young woman.”

  Dietrich nodded at her, looking very studious. “One question.”

  “Yes?”

  “I faint at the sight of blood.” His voice was solemn but his eyes glimmered.

  She glowered at him. “That wasn’t a question.” She turned to me. “There’s a special button on the back of the control panel. You press it, and it gets rid of smart-arses.” She gave him one more baleful glare and then hurried from the room.

  I grinned at Dietrich. “Shame on you.”

  “Had to lighten the mood somehow.” He eyed the machine. “You ready?”

  “Please.”

  He started the device and placed his hand on the smooth brass slab framed with carved alchemy symbols. The machine glugged like a great beast taking a long drink. Dietrich winced.

  “Does it hurt?” I asked him.

  “Not exactly. But I can feel it taking my magic—and it’s not an entirely pleasant sensation.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. I’m not the one with a chewed up leg, and I’m not lying half-dead on a healer’s table. I have no cause to complain.”

  “You’re very matter-of-fact about all this.”

  He shrugged. “Not really. But I have to keep it together—we both do. And if that means making light of it, then that’s what I have to do.”

  The machine’s rhythm changed, and suddenly I felt a needle-thin thread of energy pierce through my leg. I couldn’t decide if it hurt or not. Then it felt like an army of little ants swarming my leg.

  “Are you all right?”

  “It itches.” I clasped my hands tightly to keep from scratching my leg.

  “It’s probably the accelerated healing.” He took my hand with his free one.

  Magic jolted through me. I yanked away from his touch. “Blimey—it’s like touching a bare electrical wire.”

  He sheepishly tucked his hand behind his back. “Sorry. Talk, it’ll help keep your mind off it.”

  When the amber light blinked, Dietrich retracted the arms of the TAR to gently slide my mangled boot off my foot. The knee-high boot and the trousers tucked into it along with my wool stocking had given me some measure of protection from the alligator, but there was still a lot of blood. Some had dried, and Dietrich had to use scissors to cut away the trouser leg and stocking. He used warm water to loosen places that were stuck. He tried not to pull, but I couldn’t help wincing at times.

  After he’d removed all the fabric, he gingerly cleaned the gashes with the solution the assistant had left. It stung, and tears gathered in my eyes.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, “I’m trying to be careful.”

  My fists clenched. “I know. It’s fine.”

  He leaned down and kissed my forehead. “Nothing about this is fine, but I admire your fortitude.”

  “Will Delphine live?” I could barely voice the question.

  His hand holding the cloth shook. He took a deep breath without looking at me. “I hope so. I think she will. Aunt Lu was somber but confident. If anyone can heal her, it would be Lu.”

  Once the wounds were clean, Dietrich returned my foot to the harness and pressed the green button to resume the healing cycle. The steel arms perched on my leg again, this time pressing into bare skin. The itchy, crawling sensation began once more, and I tucked my hands under me to keep from grabbing at my leg.

  “Is it very bad?” Dietrich eyed me with a frown.

  “As you said, I’m not the one Aunt Lu is trying to save, so no—it’s not very bad.”

  Neither of us spoke for a moment. But then, I couldn’t hold back the thought that had been in my mind since we learned Delphine was missing.

  “It’s my fault.”

  Dietrich glanced at me sharply. “No it’s not. Without you, Delphine would be dead.”

  I choked back a so
b. “Without me, she wouldn’t have gone by herself. You would have been with her. She wouldn’t have been attacked with you there.”

  “You don’t know that. We both could have been attacked, and there’s no way to know how that would have turned out.”

  I shook my head, and a tear escaped down my cheek. “I started the rumor, and I locked you in the lift. If I hadn’t done those things, none of this would have happened.”

  He reached for me with his free hand, then stopped. He glanced at the machine that was drawing out his magic and gave me a regretful smile. “If she hadn’t been attacked, she would have been murdered by the Peacock. Perhaps she should thank you for what you did.”

  It was a valid point, even if a bit macabre. “It just doesn’t make sense. The other Peacock victims were celebrities, and the Empress was in attendance. Why would he murder the understudy of a sub rosa actress?”

  “She was close to him, from what Thea said. Maybe he found out she had been talking. I don’t know.”

  I shivered. “If that’s true, then perhaps he was waiting until a night when Delphine wasn’t performing. If Delphine hadn’t been attacked, then Lottie might still be alive as well.”

  Dietrich tilted his head back and heaved a sigh. “We have no way of knowing. You can torture yourself with all the what-ifs, but it does no good.”

  “I can’t help it.”

  “I understand.” His free hand gripped the control panel of the TAR. “I do. For years, I did the same thing. If I’d kept my brother and sisters at the workhouse a few more days, we would all have survived. My decision cost Friedrich and Alyce their lives. They died because of me.”

  “But you did the best you could. You were trying to do the right thing. In my case—”

  “The world doesn’t work that way. Sometimes, you try to do what’s right and it still turns out badly. Other times, you do everything wrong, and things turn out fine in spite of it all. So there’s no way to know. You can’t blame yourself for things beyond your control, things you can’t know ahead of time.”