The King's Mechanic

by Katharina Gerlach

  “The king'll be wait'n fer ya,” he said.

  Luna frowned and approached the door. Why had she been brought here? Where were the guards that must surely be present at an execution? Why did her guide let her enter alone? With her pulse fluttering in her throat, she slipped through the door, and her jaw dropped. The room — nay, workroom that spread out before her was every mechanic's dream. There were sheets of metal, stacked neatly against a wall. Countless cogs and wheels and bearings and valves, everything sorted tidily into long shelves. A gigantic workbench filled half the wall on her left and a cart with every conceivable tool stood in front of it. A humanoid figure hung from a beam in the back, but it was covered with a cloth, so Luna couldn't really tell what it was. In the center of the barn-sized workroom stood a hydraulic platform with something that was also covered with a cloth. Lots of cloth, Luna thought, remembering her first meeting with the veiled king. She fought a giggle.

  “Well, there she is, Vincente. I told you she wouldn't run.” The Spokesman's voice held something bordering on regret. Had he wanted her to flee? Luna turned just in time to stop him from pinching her behind. Her heart skipped a beat when she noticed a golden twinkle in his brown eyes. A lock of his unruly brown hair fell over his forehead, making him look like a boy — a bad boy.

  “Fair maiden…” He bent over her hand and breathed a kiss on it.

  Heat shot up her arm and threatened to spread though her body. What did he do that for? Luna swallowed and forced herself to remember how dismissively he had treated her before. Surely it wasn't the normal way to treat a doomed woman. Her throat went even dryer when she noticed the man accompanying the Spokesman. His face was rather plain and his curly hair was a mousy shade of brown, but his eyes were as dark as those of the Spokesman. He wore the same clothes as the king had in the throne room except for the veil. The implication was clear. She sank to her knees and bowed her head, awaiting her sentence.

  “Fair she might be, but maiden? I'm sure a girl her age has had her share of suitors,” the king said, and both men laughed.

  With burning ears Luna rose and glared at them. King or not. With the death sentence looming over her, she couldn't make the situation any worse. “Is it royal behavior to jump to conclusions and taunt a condemned culprit?” She stood as straight as possible. “Behead me or whatever else you had in mind, but leave my reputation out of this.”

  “Oh, we're not going to kill such a gifted mechanic.” The tone of the king's gentle voice made the hairs on Luna's skin stand up. What nasty thought had crossed his mind now? Would anyone hear her scream if he tried anything indecent? If someone heard, they would surely look the other way. She took a step back.

  “Shy as a doe,” the Spokesman snickered.

  “Oh, come on, Gustavo. Stop teasing her.” The king grabbed Luna's arm and pulled her to the hydraulic platform, although she would have preferred to examine the humanoid figure in the back of the workroom. “We need your help. That's why I spared your life and that of your pathetic father.” He pulled the cover off the machine on the platform. It looked like a cart with only two wheels, a big, ugly motor in the middle, and a saddle on top. “My head mechanic invented this machine, but after his first test he went missing. Now we don't dare to drive it. What if something breaks? Without a good mechanic, we'd be lost.”

  Luna detected serious enthusiasm in his voice. He seemed to really care about this weird cart. Wait … what had he said? He didn't want to kill her? Her knees turned to jelly and she fought to keep her posture. She wouldn't die — why was it so hard to keep her hands from shaking?

  “Go on, check it out. Make yourself familiar with it. If you can at least tell me how it works before the sun sets, I'll share my cocoa with you.” He pointed to a tray with cups and a pot on the workbench.

  For the first time since the guards had woken her that morning to drag her from her home, she relaxed and smiled openly. “It isn't every girls dream to share the king's drink, Your Majesty. But since this machine does look fascinating, I'm more than willing to try my best.”

  She turned to the weird cart and studied it. The frame resembled a capital M or an upside down W with wheels attached to the ends. A chain went from the steam-engine that sat in the middle to the wheel in the back. Over the motor were a seat and a horizontal bar with a grip on either side. Luna presumed that whoever would ride the machine would sit on top of the motor holding on to the bar. Her presumption was proved when she discovered footrests on the side of the engine.

  She bent forward to better study the machine. The rods of the engine were surprisingly thin. She couldn't imagine that the motor would work without blowing up, but she had promised to study it. Tentatively, she went through the machine's elements. Firebox, check. Water reservoir, check. Pistons? Strangely enough, there were no pistons. Instead, the steam was channeled though a tube to a fan which in turn was connected to the cogwheel with the chain that would turn the vehicle's back wheel. Luna marveled at the ingenuity.

  A quick glance up told her that the two men were busy chatting and drinking something black. For a moment, she allowed herself to study the king. He wasn't ugly but neither was he as handsome as his Spokesman, Gustavo, whose broad shoulders and narrow hips could disturb any maiden's secret dreams. The problem with good-looking guys like that usually was that they knew women liked them. She forced her gaze back to the motor. She for one would not allow a man, any man, to break her heart. For the next half hour, she took her time and examined everything thoroughly, especially the tubes and pipes that held the compressed steam to drive the fan in the tube. The Royal Mechanic had made them out of a material which seemed to be at the same time sturdy and flexible. Although, how sturdy they really were remained to be seen. Two of the pipes had come loose, so she screwed them back on, making sure they would not leak.

  Then, she started the engine, and a cloud of steam and soot rose to the workroom's rafters.

  “Hey, she got it running.” The king put his mug aside and hurried over. He slapped her on the back. “Wonderful. Now, let's take it for a ride.”

  “Not so fast,” Luna said. “I need to run a few tests first. So far, only the engine works, not the transmission of power to the back wheel.”

  The machine ran surprisingly smooth and without hiccups or other irregularities, but the chain to the rear wheel stayed motionless. Luna studied the cogs and cables a while longer until she realized that two of them led to a lever on the horizontal bar at the top. One moved a slider on the tube with the fan. This would allow steam to leave the tube, thus slowing the fan.

  “It seems that you can reduce speed with this.” Luna pointed it out to the king.

  The second lever moved the cog with the chain to the one connecting it to the fan. Cautiously, Luna used the first lever to reduce the fan's speed as much as possible. Then she pulled the second lever. The back wheel engaged and began to turn. It really looked as if this hellish machine would be able to move. She disengaged the cogs and smiled at the king.

  “It looks ready to roll,” Gustavo said.

  “I'll go first.” The king took a step forward, but Luna stopped him.

  “You should not risk this, Vincente,” Gustavo said. “We still don't know whether the engine will blow up if someone rides it.”

  “Right,” the king sighed. “Gustavo, you'll ride it.”

  “I'm honored, but I have to decline politely. Why not let her drive it?”

  “We might still need her if something blows up.”

  “You're right. Right, I'll do it. Let me just do one thing before I risk my neck.” Gustavo walked to the workbench, pulled a piece of paper and a pen from a box and began to write.

  “What are you doing?” The king walked over and looked over his shoulder.

  “I'm writing my last will and testament. I don't have any heirs yet, so I want you to get everything I own should I die. And I want you to execute the mechanic and bury her with me. A man needs some fun even in death.” He laughed and t
he king fell in.

  Luna didn't think it funny.

  “You know what? I haven't got an heir yet, either.” The king pulled another sheet of paper and a pen from the box and began to write too. “If something should happen to me, you will become Regent until I'm better, and should I die, I want you to jump in until they get my roving brothers back home.”

  Luna rolled her eyes. She was sure that Gustavo would be bad news in any position of power. Was the king really that bad at judging people or was he just reckless, hoping nothing would happen? She shrugged.

  Her gaze fell on the humanoid figure on the beam in the back of the workroom and an idea crossed her mind. Maybe it wasn't necessary to have a human ride the contraption. Maybe the Royal Mechanic had developed a mechanical rider to run with the two-wheeled cart. With the two lunatics busy writing their wills, she walked to the humanoid figure and lowered it to where she could reach it. She pulled off the cloth and smiled. She had been right; it was a mechanical person.

  The tiniest steam engine sat in the chest cavity, just waiting to get started. Arms and legs were connected to the body with hydraulic joints, and lots of cables connected everything with the neck. The only thing missing was the skull. Luna was wondering where it was when Gustavo grabbed her arm.

  “Come on, we need you to sign our wills as a witness.”

  “We won't need that.” Luna pointed at the mechanical man. “It could ride in your place.”

  “No way,” Gustavo said. “It doesn't have a brain yet. The Royal Mechanic vanished trying to obtain one from a newly executed culprit.” He pointed to a metal contraption resembling a sieve with a cable that led to the missing skull. “He said that he would be able to move all memories from a living person into his metal man and back with that gadget there. I never believed him.”

  He dragged her along to the workbench and pressed a pen in her hand. Luna signed the papers with a flourish, smug in the knowledge they had probably expected her to make simple crosses like most citizens.

  “Ooooh, she's educated.” Gustavo made it sound like an insult.

  Luna bit her lip. For now, he had the upper hand. She most definitely wouldn't let him know about the endless hours with her mother. Remembering her mother suddenly brought back the worry for Mondo. What if he had woken and found her gone? Well, he had been rather tired … But it would be best to contact him as soon as possible just so he didn't worry about her.

  “If that's all, Your Majesty, could I return to my brother now?” She curtsied as best she could.

  “No. You must come with us for the outing,” the king said. “I can't let anyone know that I'll be going or they'll make a ruckus. I wouldn't be able to leave the castle without a retainer the size of the whole town.”

  “But my brother will think you executed me when he wakes.” Luna couldn't keep quiet although she knew that contradicting the king could get her into trouble again.

  “Who cares?” Gustavo said. “He'll calm down eventually. Now, let's move this beauty out of here.”

  Before Luna could protest any more, the king went to the door and called for the squire. The young man appeared so fast, he must have been hanging around outside. “Inform the girl's brother that she's alive and well. She will return to him upon nightfall.”

  The squire bowed and raced off, and the king turned back to them. “It was the best way to get rid of him, wasn't it?”

  “Perfect.” Gustavo slapped him on the shoulder.

  With a lot of effort, Luna and Gustavo pushed the monster, as she had named it, onto a low trailer. While she covered the monster, Gustavo left. He returned with a steam-car, a steam engine chariot of the newest make. Luna had seen a few in town but never this close.

  “Let's go to the coastal road. No one from the castle goes there,” the king said and slipped under the monster's cover.

  Luna opened her mouth to protest. That place was way too dangerous for the king, but Gustavo beat her to it.

  “Hurry up and open the doors.”

  Luna's mouth snapped closed and she did as she was told. If the king wanted to kill himself, who was she to stop him?

  Sweat trickled down her forehead when she finally managed to close the big double doors again after Gustavo had driven the steam-car out. If only she could leave now. She worried about Mondo. After all, he was only six and got into trouble too easily when she wasn't around. But Gustavo wouldn't let her go, so she climbed into the steam-car reluctantly. She kept her gaze lowered as they chugged through a series of castle yards. When they passed the main gate after a lengthy discussion between Gustavo and the guards, she considered jumping off to hide in the throng of applicants waiting at the gate for an audience with the king. If they knew how close their quarry was … However, she refrained from running away when she thought of Mondo. There would be no way for him to leave the castle, and she wouldn't be able to get back in to fetch him. She sighed when the steam-car accelerated.

  Gustavo drove through town without considering the pedestrians. Often, people jumped out of the steam-car's path at the last possible moment. Luna was glad when they passed the city gates. The farther out of town they drove, the less people were around. Finally, Gustavo stopped.

  “You can come out,” he called to the trailer.

  “Man, I thought the guards had me when they insisted to search the trailer.” Laughing, the king threw back the tarpaulin. He left it to Gustavo and Luna to drag the bike off the trailer. Soon, the engine was running smoothly, and Gustavo climbed aboard.

  He should wear something to protect his head. On second thoughts, Luna didn't mind him getting his big head hurt a little. Let's hope he hits it on a tree or something. She watched him set off after a slap on his shoulder from the king. Such an unlikely friendship — well, considering how superficial they both are, it's probably not surprising. At least the king can be pretty decent if he deems it useful. Gustavo put the monster in first gear and began circling around the meadow beside the road. The first bit of his ride was jerky and wobbly, but soon he had the machine under control.

  “Let's take it on a ride along the coast to see how fast it can go,” he yelled and sped away.

  “Idiot, wait for us.” The king jumped into the steam-car barely waiting for Luna to join him before he followed the monster.

  Gustavo yelled and whooped, obviously enjoying the ride. The king slipped forward and accelerated. On the right side of the dangerously narrow road, the sheer drop of at least a hundred feet made Luna gasp. She clung to the seat's armrest to keep from getting thrown off, since the steam-car bumped and jolted along the road, and her heart thumped as loud as the engine's pistons. She swore that if she survived this ride, she'd take her brother and leave the kingdom for good. Anywhere in the world she'd rather be than in the steam-car at this moment.

  “Stop looking so grumpy,” the king said. “This is fun.”

  No, it isn't. Luna bit her lip not to say it loud. Instead she asked, “Why do you let Gustavo talk you into such a dangerous endeavor? If something happens we don't even have a decent doctor anywhere near.”

  “But that's part of the excitement. With Gustavo, I can do all the things my advisors won't let me.”

  Luna tried to tear her gaze away from the narrow road winding along the cliffs to glare at the king, with little success. “You'll die without an heir.”

  “Oh, come on. Nothing will happen, and if it does, there are still my little brothers.”

  Luna couldn't believe how irresponsibly he behaved. The steam-car slid around another tight curve, groaning and complaining, but the king didn't slow. The monster was just turning another curve in front of them, going at a speed that made Luna wish she hadn't managed to work out the way it worked. Sweat ran over her forehead and stung in her eyes. These men were lunatics — both of them. The king took the steam-car around a few more curves and screeched to a halt right beside Gustavo. Luna relaxed with relief, staring at the two friends. The king's friend wiped his fingers, using the sleeve of his
velvet tailcoat, before boxing his friend's upper arm.

  “That was incredible, Vincente. I could ride this forever!”

  The king shoved him aside and climbed onto the monster's seat. “No way. It's only one more hour before sundown, and we'll have to be back for the banquet shortly. It's my turn now.”

  “You need to drive it in circles until you get the hang of not falling off,” Gustavo said. “Don't go too fast at first.”

  The king did as he was told without complaining, which surprised Luna no end. The king? Ordered around by a servant? Truth be told, Gustavo was more than the average servant, but he seemed to have an influence over the king that was beginning to bother her more and more. She flinched when he jumped into the steam-car beside her and turned it around to follow the king who had set out on the coastal road. Luna glanced at his profile and felt her heart quicken. As much as she despised her bodily reactions, he was the best-looking man she'd ever met. And he was single … What are you thinking? You already decided he's a lunatic. She forced her gaze away and looked out for the king. A little wobbly at first, he was driving back the way they had come, already quite a bit ahead of them. Sometimes, he skidded dangerously close to the cliff's edge. Luna wanted to close her eyes but didn't dare to. To her surprise, Gustavo drove a lot more sedately than the king. Worried, she watched the royal lunatic speed away on the winding road. All of a sudden, she was sure something terrible would happen. Her heart constricted as if squeezed by a giant fist. The one time she had had this feeling before was the day her mother died.

  Despite her mixed feelings, she grabbed Gustavo's arm. A zing like an electrical shock shot through her arm and she struggled to keep her voice even. “Please, go faster. We've got to stop him.”

  “Are you crazy or what? This road is dangerous if we go too fast.”

  “I know but we have to hurry.”

  Gustavo ignored her and drove carefully on. Luna was close to jumping out to run, but the steam-car was a lot faster than she'd ever be. She fought her urge to throttle Gustavo. How could a man this good-looking be so callous? Couldn't he see that his best friend was driving dangerously close to the edge? Again, she squeezed the armrest, but this time for a very different reason. She had to get to the king before her premonition came true.