The Pyrette Queen and the Guillotined Gearmaster Read online

  Cornering Natasha in her room wasn’t hard considering she’d brought up seventeen bottles of wine to keep her company. She’d left her door open, but for what Blue had on his agenda for the day was better left in close quarters. He not only closed, but locked the door behind him, then took off his long black coat to shove into the gap between the bottom of the door and the floor. Natasha groaned, and rolled over on her bed as the sun began to shine in her eyes. Attempting to set the bottle of red wine down on her nightstand she missed, and the glass sprayed out all over the floor. Blue turned at the sudden sound and watched the red stain flow across the hardwood floors. She was in no condition to do anything right now, and definitely not in any position to go telling secret information to, but desperate times called for desperate measures. Running on three prior past experiences Natasha was beginning to untie her corset as Blue sat down on the bed beside her. He stopped her, and she looked confused as he held her hands in his for an unusually long amount of time. Natasha was not so drunk to understand something serious had brought Blue to her.

  “If you didn’t come here to sleep with me then why are you here?”

  “I need something far more valuable from you.”

  “And what would that be Blue? My wine? Because you’re just going to have to go get your own. I’m not sharing.”

  “I didn’t come here for your wine. Which I do believe you’ve had enough of. I came here for your ability to go unnoticed.”

  “Explain.”

  “Asa would never know you’ve left the mansion. He would notice if I was gone in ten minutes.”

  “Where do you need me to go?”

  “I need to get word to Lucky. He has to stop his attack on the city before there’s nothing left. If Asa pulls off a counterattack, it’s going to have catastrophic results. You do know that, don’t you?”

  “Hence the wine.”

  “I’m serious Natasha!”

  “I am too! Why send me to go speak with Lucky? Why not Silas, or one of your other lackeys?”

  “I need a woman.”

  “No truer words have been spoken.”

  “I mean, I need a woman who can get around the streets! No one would question you out there.”

  “I don’t even know where Lucky is.”

  “Please, you’ve never had trouble finding a man Natasha, just holding on to one.”

  “You expect me to go out alone right now?”

  “I’ll come with backup as soon as I get the approval from Asa.”

  “He’ll never give it to you.”

  “He will if I word it right. Lucky and Kassidy won’t want to be too far from each other in a time like this. If I can get to Lucky, she won’t be that far away. And we all know how hell bent Asa’s become on capturing her.”

  “I won’t help you turn Kassidy over to Asa if that’s what you’re getting at.”

  “I thought you two hated each other?”

  “We’ve moved past all of that given the recent circumstances. I was wrong to get on her bad side all of those years ago. I understand why she did what she did, and she understands me.”

  “Well turning Kassidy over was never my plan. Despite everything, I could never do that to her. But Asa doesn’t know that. He already knows my obedience to him hangs in the balance of what happens to her. He’s scared of losing me, because he’ll lose the gang with me. He’ll lose his power. He wants it all and just doesn’t understand he can’t have it all, not all the time. I know you and Asa have a difficult relationship to say the least, and asking you to do this won’t help your case any but…”

  “I’ll do it.”

  “You will?”

  “None of us are going to live to see the end of this anyways. I might as well do something with my last few days. So, Lucky huh? I think I know where he’ll be. It shouldn’t take me long.”

  “I thought you didn’t know where he was?”

  “Kassidy told me when she left where she was going.”

  “Kassidy was here?!”

  “Was.”

  “You should have told me!”

  “I’m telling you now aren’t I?”

  “Where did she say she was going?!”

  “To be with the people she loves, and love her.”

  Back at the palace Kassidy was sleeping on a couch in the library. It had no legs and was sitting flat on the floor, but she looked so comfortable that Harlan just covered her up with a blanket and continued diligently searching for a book. He was going at it alone because Luca had passed out from exhaustion on the bottom of the spiral staircase. With books in his hands, lap, and surrounding his feet, he was of little use. In the early morning hours, most of the Dreadcranks and supporters from Rusten Island were sleeping. There were a handful of refugees from downtown Engia that had made their way to the safe haven of the palace as well. Harlan had met them at the front door at odd hours of the night under the guidance of an old woman. She claimed to have met Kassidy previously and was told the palace was open to her anytime she might be in need. Harlan didn’t question the old woman at all, because she did not question him. An O’Brien in the abandoned royal mansion. They had something in common by the fact that Asa wanted them dead. That was enough. In the snoring lull of activity, it was hard for Harlan to stay awake himself, though adrenaline and anxiety was keeping his eyes from closing entirely. Just before he was about ready to give in he got his break. A book with its code written on the spine had him cheering up. Shelf 6, Book 6, Page 6. Harlan followed the instructions and a picture fell out. Loudly and without thinking he brought it to Luca and Kassidy’s attention.

  “I think I found something!”

  Kassidy and Luca both startled awake. Luca played coy as if he’d been working the entire time, even though the stack of books on his lap had now collapsed onto the floor around him. Kassidy smiled, wiping the sleep out of her eyes and crawled over on the floor to where her friend was sitting. Together the three took notice of Harlan’s most important discovery yet. A picture from a time before any of them were even born. Three men standing in their finest clothes, stripes on each of them. Harlan recognized them to be Dreadcranks, but also more. Kassidy gasped, and clamped her hand over mouth. The guys looked over at her crying, but they were tears of joy as she took the picture in her own hands and revealed she was smiling through the pain. Harlan couldn’t do anything but stare in sympathy, but Luca scooted over and got behind her, cradling her body in his own. She leaned in to him as he peered down to hold the picture too. It was their fathers. Both of the notorious sky pirates were consulting with their old friend, the gearmaster Ulysses Bataille. A man said to have gone insane from his stroke, which rendered him not only a mechanical genius, but paralyzed the

  right side of his face. Captain Wilhelm von Detten and his first mate, Wicked Jack Ventimiglia, standing side by side as they usually did. Smiling. Kassidy sniffled as she was smiling, and looked up to see Luca smiling as well. It was incomparable joy to see such a picture even existed, and at a time like this it was exactly the motivation they needed. But it also left them wanting more. Kassidy screwed up her face and Harlan matched her expression. Luca saw Harlan eyeing Kassidy, and sat back to try and figure out what had caused the sudden change of emotion.

  “What’s wrong sweetheart?”

  “This doesn’t make any sense.”

  “What doesn’t?”

  “Why would the gear lead us to this picture? There’s no code written on it anywhere. No clue. No directions. No riddle. Just a picture.”

  “But it’s a happy picture.”

  “It was all a dead end. There’s nowhere else to go from here. We have nothing to follow.”

  “You said it yourself when I saw you in the alley. You were always hesitant of there being a treasure. Now you know, there isn’t.”

  “But it’s not that simple. It can’t be! Why be so elaborate in the clues so far, why work so hard to convince people that there was something left behind? Why was Madame Chauvet still holdin
g on to that Codex after all these years if it wasn’t protecting something?”

  “Why does anybody hold onto anything?”

  “Strategy?”

  “Sentimental value sweetheart. You were right about Madame Chauvet and Doktor Roth being lovers. Maybe holding onto the Codex was her way of keeping him with her after he died. Maybe she wasn’t ready to let go of him.”

  “So what does this picture have to do with anything?”

  “It made you happy seeing it, right?”

  “Of course! I haven’t seen my father in years. Not even a picture.”

  “And now you have this. Nobody can take him away from you. No matter how much the Ringers try. Maybe that’s all this hunt was for. To make sure you’d always have a piece of him if something went wrong.”

  “How could my father have known something was going to go wrong though?”

  “He was a wanted man sweetheart. He was as clever as he was cunning. A trait my father and I have dearly admired for most of our lives. We have our fathers with us now. We have their fight to finish.”

  “There has to be something else.”

  “Why does there have to be anything else?”

  “Because of what you just said. My father was a clever man. He is the reason I am the way I am. I would never go through so much trouble of leaving clues behind for someone I loved if there wasn’t anything for them to gain from it. There has to be something else. A treasure, whether of monetary value or not, it’s still out there somewhere.”

  “You know I’d never doubt your judgment sweetheart. If you really believe in your heart of hearts that your father left these clues behind for a reason, then I’ll follow you to the ends of the earth to find out what it is.”

  “Really?”

  “I’ll follow your lead. You’ve never led me astray.”

  “I don’t know where to go from here though.”

  “I mi-mi-might.”

  “What is it Harlan?”

  “That pi-pi-picture, it’s the o-o-only one I know of the ge-ge-gearmaster himself.”

  “So that must be significant? The picture is the clue!”

  “Where do we go then O’Brien?”

  “The gui-gui-guillotine used to kill B-B-Bataille was preserved under-der-derground.”

  “In one of the magma chambers?”

  “Yes. I could ta-ta-take you there ri-ri-right now.”

  Kassidy gripped ahold of Harlan suspenders and they stood up together. A renewed sense of urgency flowed through her after her momentary deflation. As she rushed out of the library to get ready to go underground Luca could see that Harlan was nervous about what he had just promised. Luca made him swear he wasn’t going to let Kassidy down, and the O’Brien promptly defended his words. He could take Kassidy right to the guillotine, it’d been abandoned down there for years. Asa took the Ringers on a trip to see it a few years back to remind them all what they were fighting for. Harlan wasn’t supposed to go, but then again, he’d never been fond of taking orders from his abusive older brother. And seeing how happy the news had made Kassidy, Harlan wouldn’t take any of his previous actions back. He too believed there was something left behind for his old friend after all these years, and she deserved to find it. He could see in Luca that the Dreadcrank leader was also nervous for what they might find. It was understood the end of the treasure hunt might be well upon them, and not everything waiting to be found, is for the better. There was a very real chance, from Luca’s perspective, that what was left behind might not be what Kassidy expects. But he could soften the blow as long as he was by her side. As she came running back into the library with a bag full of ropes it was all smiles as the three took on their most recent task. With everyone still sleeping, they had a very small window to try and operate.

  It was cold in the early morning hours, but as fast as Kassidy’s heart was beating, she barely even noticed the chill in the air. It was all the guys could do to try and keep up with her while maintaining some sort of normal expectations. Harlan was leading the way through a series of tunnels both Luca and Kassidy couldn’t believe they hadn’t seen before. Then Harlan stopped at a rock wall and turned around. After moving a few oddly placed stones he revealed an imprint that had been carved. He fiddled around in his pocket and produced the gear he and Kassidy had found in the treasury. The gear was a perfect match. Harlan turned his head over his shoulder, pleased with his success, and nodded for Kassidy to come over and join him, but she hesitated. The reality of what was waiting for her and finally hit. She was scared. She took a few steps back and made a move like she was ready to bolt but Luca caught hold of her arm and wouldn’t let go. She didn’t fight him, but she wouldn’t come back either. Instead Luca walked up to her, and insisted Harlan go back to the entrance for a few minutes and let them talk alone. Harlan heard the underlying meaning, and he grinned to the side, patting Luca on the shoulder slowly as he did as he was asked. Kassidy was confused, but Luca’s eyes looked so calm she just couldn’t resist. Once Harlan was out of earshot Luca sighed deeply and took both of Kassidy’s hands in his own.

  “Luca I’m scared.”

  “You have absolutely nothing to be scared about.”

  “What if what’s on the other side of that rock wall isn’t something I want to see? Or what if what was supposed to be there waiting for me isn’t there anymore? Harlan said Asa’s been here…”

  “Sh.”

  “How am I the only one freaking out right now?”

  “You just care that much.”

  “I’m the Pyrette Queen. I don’t care about anything.”

  “Is that really true?”

  “No. But I shouldn’t care about anything. Caring about things just leads you to getting hurt. And I don’t want to get hurt anymore. I just…can’t.”

  “Your father left these clues for you. He’d never do anything to hurt you. And neither would I. I never would have come down here If I thought that’s what waited for you on the other side of this rock wall.”

  “Luca?”

  “Yes?”

  “Are you ever sorry you ran across me in the alley that day?”

  “No.”

  “Why? Can you tell me why?”

  “Of course I can. It’s that tourniquet smile of yours sweetheart. Tied together with all sorts of secrets. And the more time I get to spend with you, I get to see the real you bleed through. You’re the most tragically gorgeous woman I’ve ever met in my entire life, inside and out. For that, I will be eternally grateful our paths crossed again in that alley. I wouldn’t take it back for all the treasure in the world. And call me greedy, but I just wish it would have happened a few years sooner.”

  “That was one hell of an answer.”

  “I’m sorry it took so long for me to tell you that. You deserved to hear that a while ago. But I want you to know you’re one hell of a woman. Don’t ever question that.”

  “Well just for the record, I think you’re one hell of a guy too.”

  “Yes, but I already knew you thought that.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re a terrible liar when it comes to me sweetheart. Now what do you say, are you ready to see what’s behind this rock wall?”

  “You promise you aren’t going anywhere?”

  “I’ve got nowhere else I need to be. I’ll be right by your side every step of the way, regardless of what we do or don’t find.”

  “Then call Harlan back. I’m ready to see what this treasure is.”

  12

  Harlan shoved the gearmaster’s gear into the rock wall and let the rest take care of itself. After a minor shutter, the wall began to slide over, leaving a slender opening to get into a hidden cave. The little quake was enough to trigger memories of the cave in that Luca and Kassidy were in before, causing them to cling to each other with unnecessarily strong force. Once Harlan cleared his throat indicating everything was normal, Luca was able to loosen his grip on Kassidy, but she was not. The guys both looked down
at her hand, a white-knuckle grip around Luca’s white gloved hand. Harlan took the lead once more and led the group into the cave. Remembering Asa had left a lantern down there Harlan began scouring the ground near the rock wall for the only light source available. He ended up kicking it over, but recovered nicely once the light illuminated the small cave. All that was in it was a rusted old guillotine. It’d never been cleaned of the blood of Ulysses Bataille.