“I was that close, Lieutenant,” Glenda fretted. “I practically had them in my hands.”
“So did I,” Phipps reminded her. “And I am not worried. There are only so many places they can run to, and Alice is on a mission.”
“What do you mean?” Simon asked. Once again, they were in a hotel room, though this one was rather better than the previous one. Clean, airy, with fresh linens on the beds and flowers on the nightstand, and a water closet on every floor. Once again, Glenda perched on a chair, Simon sprawled on the bed, and Phipps paced the floor.
“Haven’t you been listening to the talk on the street? She’s curing people, one by one, with that gauntlet of hers.” Phipps unconsciously flexed her own brass hand. “They break local laws about entering houses of plague, Gavin Ennock sings, Alice Michaels scratches people with that ‘sword’ of hers, and people call them angels for breaking the law.”
“They managed to hide the airship,” Glenda growled. “There’s been no sign of the thing.”
“There’s also been no sign of Dr. Clef since the affair at the greenhouse,” Simon put in. “That worries me a little.”
“It worries me, too,” Phipps admitted. “Though it may mean he has died.”
Glenda muttered, “Life is never so easy.”
“You do have a point.” Phipps sighed. “We must operate on the assumption that Dr. Clef is still alive and very dangerous. The trouble is, we’ve been underestimating them. All of them. Gavin is a clockworker, with all a clockworker’s requisite cunning.”
“And madness.” Glenda poured herself a glass of water from a pitcher on the table. “I’ll wager Alice is enjoying herself. At any rate, we’ll never find them at hotels now. They’re going to be wary of public houses. Unfortunately, they could hide any number of other places, including the homes of grateful plague victims.”
Already the pieces were falling together. Strategy and planning, three and four steps ahead. If this happens, then that. If that happens, then this. Though it was difficult to think through the anger-and the fear. She wasn’t afraid of what Gavin and Dr. Clef might do-not really. She was afraid of failing and earning that tiny shake of her father’s head, the one that tormented her every night when she went to bed.
Phipps drummed metal fingers on the windowsill, as was fast becoming her habit. Was she doing the right thing? The just thing? Was she pursuing Gavin and Alice and Dr. Clef out of true justice, or because her father-
No. She couldn’t afford doubt now. Aloud, she said, “The smart thing would be for them to hide, true, but they won’t do the smart thing. I repeat to you: Alice is on a mission, and she can’t accomplish it in hiding. That’s how we’ll get her.”
“You mean to set up an ambush,” Simon said.
“Absolutely. I believe now is also the time to visit the gendarmes and cash in some Crown influence. They can search the city while we set a trap at the appropriate place.”
“What’s the appropriate place?” Glenda asked.
“At the highest concentration of plague victims, of course.” Phipps gave a grim smile. “I want to run a check on the mechanicals first thing in the morning. And then we’re going to shop for bread and wine.”
Chapter Five
Alice shut the huge access panel on the elephant’s left side and set the spanner on the workbench with a clank. Grease stained her face and blouse. The Tilt felt big and empty now, with its rows of vacant bleachers and high canvas roof. All the sawdust was trampled into the ground, and the bleacher rows were littered with dead peanut bags. Dodd stood nearby, watching closely, while Gavin and Feng occupied front-row bleachers.
“That was fascinating,” Alice said. “I even made some improvements on the memory wheels and increased the visual acuity.”
“Meaning what?” Dodd asked.
“It doesn’t necessarily need a rider. Look.” With a sidelong glance at Gavin and a certain amount of pride, she gestured at the big brass elephant, which came smoothly to its feet and plodded steadily around the ring, hissing and puffing steam. Alice gestured again, and it stopped. She felt like a sorceress who had conjured a steaming elemental from the depths of the earth.
Gavin applauded, and Alice turned a little pink. She had to admit that she had done this in no small part to impress him. After everything he had done this morning-rescuing her from Phipps, getting them away from Simon’s mechanical, and ingeniously hiding them in a circus-she felt a need to impress him.
“All right,” Dodd said. “We have a deal.”
“So you’ll take us with you?” Gavin said. Alice made the elephant sit like an enormous dog. This was fun.
“Absolutely,” Dodd said. “We haven’t had anyone who can service the machines in a long time. That’s why we were heading to Kiev.”
“Kiev?” Feng got to his feet, concerned. “Is that wise? The Ukrainian Empire is the source of the clockwork plague.”
“Is it?” Alice straightened. “I’ve never heard that.”
“It’s never been proven,” Gavin said slowly, “and not something everyone discusses. Kiev does seem to have the earliest cases of plague on record.”
“Earliest cases?” Feng said. “That’s an understatement worthy of my father. According to the histories, in 1750 the Dnepro River boiled in the center of Kiev and the plague rose up like a dragon and devoured the city.”
“The river boiled?” Alice repeated. “What on earth does that mean?”
“No doubt some hyperbole found its way into the history,” Feng said.
“Which only goes to show that the stories are unreliable,” Dodd pointed out. “Boiling rivers indeed!”
“Then the plague rose up again ten years later,” Feng continued, undaunted, “and one more time twenty years after that. Kiev seems to attract the plague. No one has more cases of it, and no one has an earlier source of it.”
“Then why go there?” Gavin said.
“The plague is at an ebb right now,” Dodd told him. “Besides, we have Alice, and everyone in the circus is immune by now. The Ukrainians do have world-class automatons. They do have pots of money. And they love a good circus. If we keep our noses clean, we can sell out two shows a day for a month. We’ve played there a dozen times before with no trouble. It’s true they don’t like Jews or Catholics, but we have neither in the circus.”
“I was thinking we would go south, through Turkey,” Feng said, obviously ill at ease.
“That would be out of our way,” Gavin pointed out. “And the Ukrainians have paraffin oil, don’t they?”
“They practically invented the stuff,” Dodd said. “Russia pays them tribute in petroleum, and they’ve done some incredible things with it. I’ve already arranged to rent space and Linda says she saw us in Ukraine, so-”
“Linda?” Alice interrupted.
“She and her husband, Charlie, tell fortunes in the sideshow,” Dodd answered. “They’re very good, especially since Charlie’s accident.”
“You base this decision on a fortune-teller?” Feng said incredulously.
“And everything else I mentioned,” Dodd said. “Look, I’ve already decided that we’re going. If you want to come along, come. We can use Miss Michaels. The rest of you are dead weight, but-”
“Hey!” Gavin said. “I can play the fiddle!”
“And he sings,” Alice pointed out, feeling defensive.
“I could walk a tightrope, too,” Gavin muttered. “And learn the trapeze. Wouldn’t take more than ten minutes. Stupid clockwork plague gives me stupid extra reflexes. May as well make some extra money out of it before it kills me.”
“The Flying Tortellis would drop something on my head if I put you in the ring,” Dodd said with a grin. “Besides, you’re supposed to be hiding. I was joking about the dead weight. You really do have trouble with British humor, don’t you?”
“Now, look-”
“I’ve never visited the Ukrainian Empire,” Alice interrupted. “But if it’s the center of the plague, I should certainly go there with Gavin. Why are you so unhappy, Feng?”
“They are Cossack barbarians,” Feng spat. “They build and pollute and fight. They care nothing for balance or beauty.”
“You worry about balance?” Alice asked archly.
“And the Chinese put them in power,” Gavin said.
“That doesn’t make them any less barbaric,” Feng shot back.
“In any case, I want to go there with Gavin,”Alice repeated. She stood the elephant back up and sent it to the side of the ring. “But please explain that remark about power.”
Feng crossed his arms. “England had an arrangement with China,” he said. “After the Napoleonic Wars ended, it became clear that parts of Europe-the west-and the Ottoman Empire-the east-could unite and become a threat to Britannia and China. Our governments didn’t want that to happen. So we came to an understanding. Britannia took the west and China the east.”
“I don’t need a history lesson,” Dodd complained. “Will the elephant work for anyone, Miss Michaels, or just you?”
Alice waved him away. “Anyone, Ringmaster. What do you mean by took, Feng?”
“Took charge.” Feng was pacing again. “Napoleon’s nephew was supposed to rule France after the old emperor was exiled, but the man died. With no strong ruler, France fell into civil war, and now it is four fragments. Why do you think that was? Prussia is ten tiny kingdoms who never agree. Why is that? Your Calvinists and Lutherans war with each other as well. Why does this happen?”
“You’re going to tell me the Third Ward keeps everyone off balance.”
“Indeed.”
“Up!” Dodd said, gesturing. “Up! Miss Michaels, he isn’t moving.”
“You have to use your left hand, Ringmaster,” Alice replied absently. “I assume China has a role as well?”
“China,” Gavin put in, “destabilized the east. Russia and Poland had split Ukraine in half and were draining it dry. The resources gave both countries enough power to make China-and Britain-nervous. Then the clockwork plague hit Ukraine again. For some reason, it created more clockworkers than normal in Kiev. A Cossack captain named Ivan Gonta ended up with a special talent for war machines, and his superior Maksym Zalizniak used Gonta’s inventions to start a revolution.”
The elephant got up and lumbered around the ring. It picked up speed, steam trailing from its tusks. Dodd waved frantically at it, but it didn’t slow down.
“Oh! I vaguely remember something about that from a history book, now that you mention specific names,” Alice said. “Gonta and the other clockworkers put together hundreds of war machines and slaughtered thousands of Russians and Poles until they abandoned Ukraine to the Cossacks.”
“Hello there!” Dodd shouted. “Runaway elephant!”
“Did you ever stop to wonder where Gonta and Zalizniak found the money and materials to build all those machines?” Feng asked.
Alice gestured sharply, and the elephant screeched to a halt. “I have the feeling it came from China.”
“Was that a malfunction?” Dodd asked. “Because I swear I did the exact same thing.”
Feng nodded. “The emperor chose wisely-the Cossacks are content to defend their borders without expanding them, and they make an excellent wedge between Russia and Poland.”
“I am your boss, Miss Michaels,” Dodd said.
“Of course you are,” Gavin murmured.
“At any rate,” Feng concluded, “the ruling Cassocks are actually crueler to their own people than the Poles or Russians ever were. It’s the nature of the warrior class.”
“And we’re walking right into them?”
“Steaming into them,” Dodd said. “We have a train. But I told you not to worry. They love us. Now, show me how to work this damned elephant.”
Alice gave him a wide smile. “What’s the magic word, Ringmaster? As a hint, I’ll tell you that it isn’t damned.”
Gavin laughed, and Alice thought it was the most musical thing she had ever heard.
Later that afternoon, Alice opened the hatchway on the Lady of Liberty in her hiding place at the abandoned stable and climbed belowdecks. The familiar narrow corridor faced with doors greeted her. The creaking space felt eerie and claustrophobic without Gavin here. Alice went past her stateroom all the way down to the end and slid the last door open. Inside was the tiny laboratory Gavin had built into the airship. The entire place was set up for efficiency. Tools hung on the bulkheads, tabletops folded up, tiny drawers kept everything pigeonholed. It even had a tiny forge, which was currently glowing and made the room hot and stuffy. The place was also hung with half a dozen clocks. They ticked madly, their exposed gears whirling. Stuck everywhere were pieces of paper, large and small. Every one of them had the same drawing, one of a three-dimensional wire cube that twisted Alice’s eye. Part of the back passed over the front, or perhaps the front passed under the back. The drawings were done in pencil, charcoal, colored ink, and one medium that looked suspiciously like blood.
Dr. Clef was standing in the midst of all this with his back to Alice. He seemed to be scratching something in a notebook. Click leaped down from the rim of a porthole and hurried over to her, purring loudly. Alice scooped him up. His skin was cool and smooth.
“Click,” she said. “Oh, I’ve missed you.”
Dr. Clef turned and pushed his goggles up. “Alice! When did you come back, my dear? I have not seen you in weeks.”
“Weeks?” Alice stroked Click’s brass back. “Doctor, it’s been only two days.”
“Oh. Are you sure?” He glanced at the clocks. “How interesting. Did you know that gravity affects a clock?”
“Er… no.”
“Look at these.” He pointed at the ones closest to the ceiling. “They are moving at a slightly different rate than the ones down there at the floor. It gets more noticeable when I put them on top of the ship’s envelope. It is because they are farther away from Earth’s gravity.”
“They look the same to me, Dr. Clef.”
Dr. Clef shrugged. “They are not.”
“Are you trying to re-create your Impossible Cube, Doctor?” she asked.
“With difficulty.” He pointed at a small cable spool on the worktable. It was wound with fat, stiff-looking wire. “I have managed to reforge some of my special alloy using nails and other scraps from the barn, but I do not think I can re-create the Cube itself. And I do miss it.”
“What’s the problem?”
“It is-was-unique in all time and space.” Dr. Clef sighed. “I am beginning to think it cannot be re-created, for that would violate the basic nature of its uniqueness. But look at what I have learned while I am trying.” He held up a notebook with a number of formulae scribbled in it. “When you measure certain events, you change them. You can, for example, discover how fast a certain piece of… of matter is moving or you can learn its location, but you can’t pin down both. It is very odd.”
“Ridiculous.” Alice waved her free hand. “There. You can see how fast my hand is moving and you can see exactly where it is.”
“Nonetheless. It is especially true for things so tiny, they cannot be seen and who move so fast, they cannot be captured.”
“Then how do you know they exist?”
“The numbers prove it,” he said, brandishing the notebook again. “It all related to my poor Impossible Cube. I miss it so. The beauty. The symmetry. The way it twisted the universe about itself. Everything about it was perfect.”
“Perhaps you can still rebuild it.”
“As I said, I am beginning to think this is not possible. Can you tell me any more about the way it was destroyed?”
Alice remembered watching Gavin holding the Impossible Cube beneath the Third Ward as he sang a single crystal note that shattered everything around him. Everything but her. Then he dropped the Cube, which fell through every color of the spectrum and vanished in a white flash the moment it touched the floor.
“Only what I’ve told you already,” she said. “Nothing new. Doctor, the way the Cube twists itself-”
“It does no such thing,” Dr. Clef interrupted, agitated. “The Cube is a constant. It twists the universe, but since we are in the universe, we think the Cube is twisted.”
“Of course, of course,” Alice reassured him, though she had no idea what he was talking about. “But I meant that it might be better if you left the Cube alone. Perhaps it isn’t meant to be re-created at all.”
An odd light came into his eyes. “Do you think so?”
“Quite.”
“Hmmm. Maybe I should leave it alone, then. Did you bring back any raspberry jam? I have not had any in quite some time.”
“Oh!” Alice jolted back to the nonscientific world. “We did bring more food, but no jam, I’m sorry to say. Gavin and Feng are down in the barn. We think we have a way to move the ship, and we’ll need your help.”
Dr. Clef rubbed his hands together. “A project! I will be pleased to take part.”
“Madam?” The door to Alice’s stateroom opened and Kemp poked his head into the corridor. “Is that you?”
“Of course it is, Kemp.”
“Thank heavens!” He bustled into the corridor. “I’ve been having a dreadful time keeping the little automatons under control, and I finally had to lock them up. We’re completely out of food, and-”
“Yes, Kemp. You’ve done an admirable job and we couldn’t have survived without you. Now, come down, both of you.”
Kemp managed to look pleased despite his lack of facial features. “Madam.”
On deck, they filed past the little generator, which had only recently been switched back on. It contentedly puffed steam and paraffin oil smoke, a shockingly daring woman smoking a cigarette. Above them, ropes creaked and the envelope’s lacy endoskeleton glowed blue, indicating that it was receiving power and lifting the hull. They all climbed down to the barn floor. At the entrance of the barn was Gavin, who had abandoned his black clothes for an ordinary work shirt, brown trousers, and a cloth cap. He looked like a handsome young farmer. With him was Nathan Storm, his own cap barely concealing his sunset hair, and a team of four horses pulling a wagon, which carried a pile of material covered in canvas.
“What’s this? What’s this?” Dr. Clef asked, and Alice made introductions. Dr. Clef clapped his hands in glee. “The circus! A perfect place to hide ourselves, then. But how will we hide the ship?”
“With this.” Gavin pulled the canvas off the wagon, revealing a pile of wheels and axles.
Dr. Clef clapped his hands again. “Of course, of course. I should have seen. Shall we work now?”
“I told you he would understand quickly,” Gavin said to Nathan, who only lit his pipe. They hauled the Lady out of the barn and tethered her a few feet above the ground so they could set to work. The endoskeleton continued to glow its lacy blue, and Alice felt nervous and exposed, like a fat rabbit on a meadow with hawks cruising overhead, but there was nothing for it.
“Alice,” Gavin said, “could you bring down your little automatons to assist? And then…”
She cocked her head. “And then what?”
“Uh… maybe you could go for a walk? Or just stay out of sight behind the barn. This shouldn’t take long.”
Her ire escalated. “Because you don’t think I’m qualified to help? How can you possibly think-”
“No, no.” He held his hands up. “I just don’t think you should see this.”
It was the wrong thing to say. Her voice rose and her metal fist clenched. “I’m too ladylike, is that it?”
“Not at all.”
“Uh-oh,” Nathan said.
“So I’m not a lady, then?” Alice said.
“What? No! I just… Alice, you’ve never seen a clockworker in a full work fugue before, have you?”
“And it’s not appropriate to me because I’m a lady.” She folded her arms. “It’s foolish to give up a pair of hands because of some misguided principles. I’m helping, and the sooner we get started, the better.”
Gavin closed his eyes. “All right. Let’s get started, then.”
They had to work quickly, before they were spotted and word filtered back to Phipps, wherever she was. Alice was no slouch at mechanical work, but even she was amazed at Gavin and Dr. Clef. They both circled the pile of parts and tools for some time, studying them, with her little automatons hovering and skittering nearby. Kemp and Click also awaited orders. A blank look came over first Gavin’s eyes, then Dr. Clef’s. They dove into the parts with great glee and rushed with them toward the Lady, barking orders to the automatons as they went. Alice followed along, and was startled when Gavin thrust an axle into her hands.
“Grind these ends smooth,” he boomed. “And be quick about it! Maybe then I can ride you into battle.” Then he turned away and flung a handful of bolts at one of the little whirligigs, who caught them in midair. He didn’t even seem to recognize Alice. At first she felt indignant. Then she felt sickened. She told herself it was the clockwork plague, not him, and when a clockworker entered a fugue, nothing mattered but the work, but she still felt like she’d been slapped.
“What are you waiting for, girl? The usual offer to tup you for half a sandwich?” Gavin snarled. His eyes were wild and his hair half stood up. Oil streaked his face and hands like blood. “Move!”
Face flaming, Alice did as she was told, and when she was finished, accepted another snarl from Gavin, this time to tighten bolts. The little automatons flitted and scampered about. He snatched her automatons and spiders one by one, opened them up, and changed their memory wheels around. They squeaked in protest, and Alice bit back a cry of alarm. Dr. Clef worked elsewhere, shouting orders at Kemp and Nathan. Click stayed out of the way. Alice felt as tense as the metal she tightened.
“Faster!” Gavin bellowed at her. “You’re slow and clumsy. Typical of dog meat.”
Alice kept her head down, feeling small and stupid and hating herself for it. Gavin had become another person, a sneering stranger, and she didn’t like him. Telling herself that it wasn’t his fault didn’t help much. After being barked at for the fourth time, she began to see why so many clockworkers were forced to build automaton assistants. The only saving grace was that Gavin and Dr. Clef seemed to be working three times as hard as anyone else.
“Hey!” Gavin dropped the automaton he was altering and dashed over to Dr. Clef, who was frantically reworking a set of wheels. “Those measurements are wrong, you fat idiot. You’re off by a good sixteenth-inch.”
Dr. Clef’s jowls reddened. “You’re not half the man your mother is, you grease-faced dog. The tracks are clearly-”
“Did you think I can’t see the obvious?” Gavin barked. “My mind is sharper than any tool you’ll ever touch, and certainly a good deal larger.”
Dr. Clef picked up a sledgehammer and hefted it with an ease and power that caught Alice off guard. She had forgotten that the clockwork plague enhanced his strength and reflexes just as much as Gavin’s. “We will see how large a tool I have.”
“Just a moment!” Nathan plucked the hammer from Dr. Clef’s hand. “Over there, Doctor. Does that axle look crooked to you?”
“And, Gavin,” Alice said, hurrying forward, “I don’t think that automaton is functioning properly.”
Both clockworkers turned, distracted, and moved fairly quickly to their new tasks. Nathan set the sledgehammer down.
“Clockworkers don’t work well together in fugue,” he murmured.
“I can see that,” Alice said.
“You!” Gavin snapped. “The one with an ass like a bag of laundry! Bring me that box of parts.”
“Don’t shout back. You just saw how it only makes them worse,” Nathan said quietly. “And don’t take it personally.”
Alice’s jaw was tight. “I’m trying.”
In a surprisingly short time the Lady sported three sets of train wheels on her underside, and all the automatons had been modified. Still, the sun was setting, and Alice felt dirty, greasy, and half starved, and the steady stream of invective stuck like pitch to her skin. It would never come off.
“We’re done,” she called up to Gavin, who was busy carving ivy leaves into a box that he had mounted on the deck. The box had two buttons on it, one red and one green. His hands moved with inhuman speed. “Gavin! We’re done!”
“Not close, you ignorant filth. Do something useful with your fingers besides twiddle yourself, and bring me a screwdriver.”
Setting her mouth, Alice strode up the gangplank and grabbed him by the shoulders. He shook her off and snarled at her like a dog. A blob of spittle flew from his mouth and landed warm on the back of her hand. She jumped back, eyes wide at the monstrosity of it.
“How dare you lay hands on me?” he snarled. “Keep your disgusting hands to-”
Water doused him from head to foot. It plastered his hair to his scalp and ran off him in rivulets. Gavin gasped and gaped for a long moment. Alice scrambled backward and Nathan set down his bucket.
“Are you yourself, then?” he asked Gavin mildly.
There was a long pause. Gavin dropped the tools, and they thudded on the planking. “Are we done? What time is it? Why am I all wet?” His voice was normal, and held none of the sneering tone she’d been hearing all afternoon. She felt so relieved, she was afraid she would half burst into tears, but she was angry, too. Why hadn’t he come out of it when she talked to him?
“We had to snap you out,” Alice said stiffly. “Thank you, Mr. Storm. We should get moving, before someone spots the ship and gossip spreads.”
Gavin uselessly mopped at his face with his sopping sleeve. “Did it work? Are we ready? Why won’t anyone answer me?”
“I’m assuming it worked.” Alice forced her voice to stay level. Looking at Gavin made her angry at the way he had treated her. It’s not his fault. It’s not his fault. He told me to walk away, she told herself. But it didn’t help. “You and Dr. Clef were doing nothing but decoration, and we probably shouldn’t wait for that.”
“You’re mad at me,” he said. “Did I say or… do anything to you? God, Alice, I’m sorry. I don’t-”
“Not now, Gavin,” she said. “We need to move.”
Gavin looked like someone had kicked his puppy. She knew she was being unreasonable, that she should apologize or offer to hear him out, but she couldn’t seem to do it.
“We’re ready up here,” she called over the gunwale.
Nathan had disembarked. The Lady was still floating a few feet above the ground, and her new wheels just barely cleared the green grass. Dr. Clef, also out of his fugue, was hitching the horses to the front of the airship with Nathan’s help.
“Give it a little more power, my boy!” Dr. Clef called up.
Gavin went to the paraffin oil generator and adjusted the dials. The purring grew louder and more steam emerged. The endoskeleton glowed a little brighter, and the Lady rose higher, but only about a foot.
“Clear!” Nathan called from the horses, and flicked the reins. The four horses started forward, towing the ship, which slid forward at a quick, even pace.
“It works,” Alice said.
“So far,” Gavin said cautiously. “And we can come back for the wagon later. I’m just not so sure about the rest.”
Alice whistled, and whirligigs flew from a dozen different directions to hover in front of her, their brass parts glittering in the dying sunlight. Most of them were carrying at least one spider. “Thank you for your help,” she said. “We’re nearly set for the next step. Please stand ready.”
Looking excited, they flew up into the rigging like a cloud of mechanical bats.
“Do they understand please and thank you?” Gavin asked.
“They seem to work better when I use those words, so I do,” Alice said. “I can’t explain it, so I don’t try.” Her words came out curt.
“Look, Alice, I’m sorry I-”
“Oh look-the tracks!”
The railroad tracks ran alongside the road Alice, Gavin, and Feng had taken into Luxembourg two days ago. No one was on them at the moment. Nathan guided the horses around until the airship was hovering just above the tracks.
“Down!” Nathan called.
With another glance at Alice, Gavin slowly powered down the generator. The blue glow lessened and the Lady sank like a woman settling into an armchair. Alice looked over the side. Kemp, Dr. Clef, and Nathan pushed and nudged the hull as it went down, making sure the new wheels lined up with the tracks. With a clunk, the ship dropped into place.
“Perfect,” Dr. Clef said. “Everything matches.”
“We have an hour before a train comes,” Gavin said. “So let’s hope this works.”
He put his hand over the green button on the newly mounted box on the deck, the one with half-carved ivy leaves on it, and paused. Several moments passed, and Alice finally said, “What’s the matter?”
“I hate to do this to her,” Gavin replied quietly. “It feels like I’m crippling my sister or my mother. But it needs to be done.”
He slapped the green button. In the rigging, all the automatons instantly came to attention. The spiders rushed over the ropes and the whirligigs spun into action. Under the new instructions Gavin had spun into their memory wheels, they unfastened the Lady’s outer envelope. Their tiny fingers popped seams with quick precision, and the sides of the envelope peeled away like petticoats to reveal a glowing wire corset beneath. Alice realized she felt a bit embarrassed, as if the Lady were undressing in public, and she told herself not to be silly. The spiders dodged into the endoskeleton’s framework, and got to work on the interior balloons. As the last pieces of the envelope drooped away, the four interior ballonets deflated with an unhappy sigh, leaving a pile of cloth inside the curlicue endoskeleton. The outer layer of cloth dropped to the deck, and Alice found herself buried in silk. She struggled out of it and found Gavin emerging as well. His expression was sad.
“My ship,” he said.
But Alice could only manage a curt nod.
The endoskeleton, meanwhile, continued to hover, and the whirligigs rolled it up like an enormous piece of chicken wire with the deflated ballonets inside. It was still powered by the generator, however, so the roll hovered high above the deck. Without the additional lift of the envelope, the skeleton didn’t have the strength to lift the Lady’s hull, and the ropes kept it from floating away. Gavin swept silk away from the generator and powered it slowly down. The wire roll, which was the same length as the ship and about five feet in diameter, sank slowly to the deck, drooping ropes as it came. The whirligigs and spiders rode it down, and Alice could swear they were silently cheering. She and Gavin pushed the roll a little to one side so it wouldn’t land on the helm and finally eased it down to the starboard side of the deck. The hull creaked and settled as the weight shifted. Nathan snapped his reins, and the four horses jerked forward. It took them a moment to get started, but at last they moved ahead, pulling the newly wheeled airship smoothly down the tracks.
“We’re not done,” Gavin said to the whirligigs, which rushed down to the wagon and, working as teams, hauled up two large canvas signs. Gavin hung one over one side of the ship and Alice hung the other over the opposite side. In garish letters, they read Kalakos Cirque International du Automates et d’Autres Merveilles.
“It’s like putting whore’s makeup on a queen,” Gavin muttered.
Alice was sure she wasn’t meant to hear that comment, so she ignored it. She climbed down a rope ladder, dropped to the ground, and trotted a short distance from the tracks to get a good look. The airship’s gunwales looked like the railings that graced the top of most circus wagons. Silk covered the name The Lady of Liberty painted across the stern, and the banner signs completed the trick. The airship looked like a tall wagon or high train car being hauled somewhere for repairs or a bit of publicity. Alice climbed back up. Kemp was back on deck, along with Gavin. Nathan and Dr. Clef drove the horses below. Click had disappeared, but Alice was confident he would show up again. He always did.
“Go below and hide, Kemp,” Alice said. “You’re illegal here. Take the little ones with you.”
“Shall I bring tea first, Madam?” Kemp said.
“I’m not hungry anymore,” Alice replied.
Kemp withdrew. The horses were making good time on the tracks. Already they were nearing the boundary of the city. The fields and trees were nearly dark, and the sounds of the city-voices, horses, clattering machinery, laughter, music-floated past in snips and pieces beneath shy stars. A faint breeze from the country brought smells of earth and hay. Alice drummed her mechanical hand on the gunwale with little clicking sounds.
“I tried to warn you,” Gavin said quietly. “And I’m not going to fall all over myself apologizing.”
“Don’t expect you to.”
He shrugged casually, but Alice could see the stiffness in his posture. “I didn’t bring the plague on myself, and I don’t like it that you’re treating me as if I did.”
The anger flared again. “What are you talking about? I gave up everything for you, Gavin Ennock. I gave up a marriage and abandoned my position in society and, God help me, I even destroyed the British Empire, all to save you.”
“You wanted to watch me work and whatever you saw scared you.” Gavin flung his cap away and spread his arms. “Get a good look, Alice. I’m the monster your dear aunt made me.”
“Don’t you bring Aunt Edwina into this!” Alice cried. “She was just as insane as… as…”
“As I am?” Gavin finished for her. “Go ahead. Blame me. Blame her. It doesn’t matter. In a few months I’ll be dead. Then you can rush to England and see if Norbert will take you back.”
He stalked over to the other side of the deck and stared viciously out at nothing. Alice turned her back on him, stiff with fury. The city slid past with a faint rumble and scrape of train wheels. The Lady swayed a little. It felt distinctly odd, the familiar rhythm of a railway car on the open deck of an airship. Some of Alice’s anger gave way to nerves. Somewhere out there, Glenda and Simon and Phipps were looking for her. For all she knew, they were one street over, or just around the corner. She shivered and glanced back at Gavin. The anger came back. It didn’t matter that it was the plague that-
Yes. It did matter. She looked back at the streets and buildings, now only lit by occasional streetlights and yellow lamps in windows. This part of the city was mostly residential, and there was little street traffic at night. Three of the doors each had ragged red P’s painted on them. The deserted sidewalks and cobblestones suddenly seemed an echo of her life. The plague definitely mattered. It was all that mattered. It had stolen her entire family and her future, turned her into a fugitive, and forced her to make choices that would change the entire world. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right. And it made her so angry.
Movement caught her eye. A tattered, gaunt woman shuffled along the sidewalk as the airship glided past. She wore a battered straw hat and sores split her skin. The light from a streetlamp made her flinch. Plague zombie. A lifetime of reflexes made Alice flinch away, but once she recovered, she turned to tell Gavin, but then thought otherwise. What business was it of his?
Alice scuttled down the rope ladder. The airship moved slowly, and Alice easily dropped to the street. Nathan and Dr. Clef didn’t see her and continued on with the horses. She didn’t want to shout and call attention to herself, so she simply dashed over to the zombie woman, pulling off the glove that covered her left hand as she went. It would be easy enough to cure the poor woman and catch the ship back up. She couldn’t save her family, but she could save this woman, and so many others like her. She had to do it, or what was the point of everything that had gone before?
The zombie woman barely reacted when Alice slashed her, but straightened fairly quickly. Much of the misery left her face, replaced with relief. She blinked and looked around, like a blind person seeing color again. Alice’s heart lightened. Every life she changed for the better made her own existence a bit more worthy. The zombie-now a full person again-wandered away with an expression of wonder.
“Excusez-moi!” Another woman Alice hadn’t noticed stepped out of a doorway. “Etes-vous qu’elle?”
Alice started, and her light mood evaporated. “Am I she, who?” she asked cautiously, also in French. The woman was young and very pretty, with enormous blue eyes.
“The one who cures people,” she clarified. “People with the plague.”
The airship-cum-wagon was pulling out of sight, but if this woman also needed help, Alice didn’t see how she could refuse.
“I am she,” she said.
The woman abruptly caught Alice in a hard embrace. “Thank you. Thank you, thank you. You are an angel.” She broke away, suddenly embarrassed, and said, “But where is your friend?”
“My friend?”
“The one whose music gives you power to cure them.”
“Oh.” Alice thought about correcting her, then thought the better of it. “He’s… he’s nearby.”
“There are more who need you. Many more. Can you come? Please?”
The airship was curving away, nearly gone. Alice chewed her lip. She was still angry, but she wasn’t stupid, either. “I can’t come right now, but I will, I promise. Where?”
“To the Church of Our Lady,” she said, “at the top of the hill in the center of the city. Ask for Monsignor Adames.”
“I promise,” Alice repeated, and ran back to the clattering airship. At the front with the horses, Dr. Clef was telling Nathan, “The closer one comes to its position in time, the farther one wanders from its position in space.”
She had just reached the ladder when a trio of men on horses cantered around the corner, the horses’ iron-shod hooves clattering on the cobblestones. The men wore smart blue uniforms, and one of them carried a torch. The woman fled into the shadows.
“You!” one of the men shouted at the airship in French. “Halt!”
Nathan and Dr. Clef stopped the team. Gavin poked his head over the gunwale, a startled and worried expression on his face. Alice hurried up the ladder, her hands chilly with apprehension.
“Where were you?” Gavin hissed at her.
“Never mind,” she whispered back. “Get out that nightingale.”
“What?”
“Just do it!”
“Yes, Officer?” Nathan asked pleasantly, also in French. He sucked at his pipe with outward calm, but Alice could see tension in him. Dr. Clef had slid to the side of the team opposite the two police officers and was keeping his head down, away from the torchlight.
“What are you doing out at this hour?” the first man snapped. He was older, and wasn’t carrying the torch.
“We are with the circus and had to move one of our cars,” Nathan replied. “It was the only time the tracks were free.”
“Where are your papers?”
“Here, sir. All signed and stamped.” Nathan drew a set from his pocket and handed them over. The man with the torch held the light so his superior could examine them. The third man took his horse around the other side of the disguised airship, clearly to make sure no one slipped away and vanished. Alice held her breath, hoping they would take the explanation and leave.
The officer gave the papers only a cursory glance. “We have reports of certain dangerous criminals from England and America. A woman with brown hair and a younger man with pale blond hair.”
“I was afraid of that,” Gavin whispered. “The Third Ward has connections all over Europe. Phipps must have talked to the police.”
“I’m from Ireland,” Nathan said.
“What about him?” The older officer pointed at Dr. Clef, who was still huddled behind the horse.
“He’s mute, and an idiot,” Nathan said. “His mother was a sideshow freak and he was born funny, but horses love him.”
“I still need to search this wagon,” the officer said.
Alice’s heart beat fast now. Before she could lose her nerve, she shouted over the gunwale in her heavily accented French, “What is wrong down there? We should not stop for long, you know.”
“Who’s there?” the lead officer called up. He drew a sword. “Show yourself!”
Alice tied a handkerchief over her hair in an impromptu head cloth and peered over the side. “I am Lombarda, lion tamer extraordinaire. Who are you?”
“Lieutenant Ovrille of the Grand Ducal Police,” he said. “Come down immediately! We are searching the wagon!”
“If you like,” Alice called back. “But the lion, he will not be happy.”
Ovrille paused. “What lion?”
“The cage, it has broken, you see. That is why we are using this wagon. The lion, he is up top, and I have no leash or cage right now, and it is far past his mealtime. He is quite hungry. Fortunately, he does not feel women are a threat, no?”
The other officer, the one with the torch, looked uncertain. “Sir-,” he said.
“Our orders are clear,” Ovrille said stubbornly. “We are to search everything even remotely suspicious.”
“Yes, yes,” Alice called. “Please come up, then. But make no sudden moves, especially if you ate meat for supper. I do not know how much longer I can keep him quiet.” She changed her tone of voice, as if she were speaking to a child. “Can I, baby? No, I cannot. I just cannot keep ums quiet!”
Ovrille dismounted and reached for the rope ladder hanging over the side of the airship. Alice gestured sharply at Gavin, who fumbled with the nightingale and finally managed to press its right eye. It opened its beak and the lion’s roar from the previous evening’s parade snarled through the night, a little quiet but realistic enough. Ovrille froze.
“No, no, no,” Alice cooed loudly. “It is all right, little one. The man is not here to hurt you. He is not for you to bite. You must sit quietly and let him-”
Gavin pressed the nightingale again, and it played the roar a second time. Ovrille snatched his hand away from the ladder as if the rungs were hot pokers. The officer with the torch backed his horse away, as did the man who had gone to the opposite side of the airship.
“What are you doing?” Alice said. “I believe I have him under control. Come up now before he again becomes angry.”
Another roar. Ovrille went back to his horse. “Yes, well,” he said. “I think we can let it go this time.”
“Are you sure?” Alice said. “We would not wish for you to get into trouble. If you let him lick your hand first, he probably won’t bite.”
“Just go,” Ovrille ordered.
“Huh. As you wish, then.”
Nathan tapped the horses, which jerked forward, and the airship creaked along the tracks. Once the officers were out of sight, Alice blew out a long breath. Every muscle went limp and she collapsed to the deck.
“I never want to do that again,” she half sobbed, half giggled.
“You thought it was bad for you.” Gavin sank to the deck beside her. “I had no idea what you were saying and had to guess about making the nightingale roar.”
“Good that you’re intelligent, then.”
There was a long pause. Alice wanted to say something more, except words wouldn’t come. The anger curled around her heart like a dozing tiger and held everything in. Alice envied Gavin’s easy way with words, how he could say whatever was on his mind.
After a while, Gavin brought his cupped hands with the nightingale in them to his face. When he brought them down again, he tossed the nightingale into the air. It spread its wings and fluttered about for a moment, then flitted over to settle on Alice’s shoulder. Alice knew that the nightingale, meant to carry recorded messages, would fly back and forth between the last two people who had touched it. The moment it landed, the little bird sang in Gavin’s voice.
I picked a rose, the rose picked me,
Underneath the branches of the forest tree.
The moon picked you from all the rest
For I loved you best.
Alice closed her eyes at the beauty that surrounded her but still couldn’t respond.
“Most people think,” Gavin said, “that if the melody of a song is written in a minor key, the accompaniment or counterpoint has to be played in a minor key, too. But that’s not right. The counterpoint can be the major fifth chord, if you leave out the mediant, the one note that clashes.”
She made a small, noncommittal noise. Ahead of them, the tracks stretched through the city, turning neither right nor left, taking the airship down its predetermined path.
“I’ve never been in love before, Alice,” he continued. “And I’ve never been a clockworker. So I don’t know what all this means. I can only play the music fate hands me. When I sing, all my songs tell me that I want to be with you. If you don’t want to be with me, just say so.”
Suddenly she couldn’t bear it any longer. She sat up and grabbed his hand. His fingers were strong. The nightingale hopped back to his shoulder. “I hate the plague. I hate what it’s doing to you. To us. I don’t want to let you go. I can’t let you go. But I’m frightened of what the plague might do.”
“So am I,” he said quietly. “It steals memory from me, and it steals time from us. We have to get to China and find a cure.”
“What if there is no cure, Gavin?” she asked suddenly. “What if the Dragon Men can’t do anything, or they just won’t, or we can’t find a cure in time?”
He squeezed her hand. “Alice, the plague might be able to steal my sanity, but it can’t steal love. No matter how insane I go, there will always be a part of me that loves you.”
And she still didn’t know how to respond, so she didn’t. That didn’t seem to bother Gavin. They sat on the deck in simple silence together until the airship pulled onto the spur that led to the park Dodd had rented for the circus. When the ship came to a halt behind the dark circus train, Alice headed for the ladder.
“Get your fiddle,” she said. “We aren’t done yet.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’ll explain below.”
Nathan was already unhitching the horses with Dr. Clef’s help. Alice explained how she had met the woman. “She said there were more who need me at the Church of Our Lady.”
“I know where that is,” Gavin said.
“So do I,” Nathan put in. “Dodd and I have gone there for confession once or twice.”
Gavin blinked innocently. “What did you confess?”
“That you were an arse.”
“She said to ask for Monsignor Adames,” Alice said. “I need to-”
“There you are!” Dodd ran up and caught Nathan in a hard embrace. One of the horses snorted. “Jesus, you scared me out of my wits.”
“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Nathan gasped. “What’s wrong?”
“Mingers.” Dodd let him go. “Gendarmes. They turned the whole circus upside down looking for Gavin and Alice and demanding to know if we were hiding you. No one said anything, of course, but thank God you weren’t here.”
“Are they still looking?” Dr. Clef asked.
“I should think so. They seemed pretty intent. They called you criminals, and Dr. Clef a danger to society.”
“Was a woman with them? Tall? Dark hair? Metal arm?” Gavin said.
Dodd shook his head. “You mean your Lieutenant Phipps. She wasn’t there, but I heard them mention her name.”
“What about Feng?” Alice said.
“He was easy to hide.” Dodd waved a dismissive hand. “We have two families of Chinese. She didn’t even ask about him.”
“That’s a relief, then.” Alice tugged at Gavin’s elbow. “We need to go.”
“You can’t go now,” Dodd said. “Didn’t you just hear? Phipps has patrols looking for you all over the city. You’ll be safe here-they’ve already looked-but you can’t go out.”
“I promised, Ringmaster,” Alice said. “Those people need my help. Every moment’s delay means another plague victim might die. So unless you intend to lock me in a lion’s cage, get out of my way before I knock you down.”
“She will,” Gavin told him.
“Fine.” Dodd made the same dismissive gesture. “But you aren’t going alone.”
“Certainly not!” Alice said, and Dodd looked surprised that she was agreeing. “Only a fool would do that. And a number of people who aren’t coming should know where I’m going so they can mount a rescue if I don’t return in a reasonable amount of time. Gavin’s coming, of course.”
“Am I?” Gavin was grinning.
“You are. You know where the church is. Feng must come, too. That leaves Mr. Storm, who also knows where the church is, on rescue duty with Dr. Clef and the ringmaster.”
“As long as you’re running my circus,” that man sighed, “you might as well just call me Dodd.”