Trent Jamieson - Night's engines

“So, now we know where your loyalties lie.”

“Where did you think they lay? With a pallid, death-hungry bitch and a drug addict?” Kara smiled. “No offence intended.”

“None taken,” Margaret said archly.

“Count yourself lucky I didn’t bring you here at the beginning. David, you were unconscious for days, think about what might have happened then?”

“Well, you’ve got us here now,” David said and smiled at Kara, but she didn’t smile back, just a tightening of lips, a deepening of frown.

“Mother Graine says you’re a monster. But looking at you, all I see is a young man, with a ridiculous moustache. What are you?” she said, holding his arms. David tried his hardest to keep the cold from them. But what did he know of warmth? All the power that he possessed drew from its opposite.

“I quite like the moustache,” he said. “I’m still me, and I’m not. I’m an Old Man in a young body. I’m David Milde and John Cadell, well, Cadell is in there somewhere.”

“Hey, Old Man.” Kara bumped a knuckle against his skull. “How do you both fit in there?”

David shuddered. “Truth is, I don’t know if we even can. But, at the moment at least, we’re managing.”

“But I thought that Cadell died.”

“Yes, and then I had to kill the body.”

Kara’s eyes widened. “You what?”

“Cadell’s body went missing after you left. Without his mind, all it possessed was hunger,” David explained.

“You fought Cadell, and you won? That man leapt onto an iron ship, destroyed it with his bare hands.”

“We managed. I had all of Cadell’s strengths — and Margaret — all he had left were his weaknesses. Hunger is a terrible and frightening thing, but it isn’t that smart.”

“And are you still hungry?”

David laughed. “I am always hungry. Always, takes a lot of fuel to drive what I am.”

“This is so unfair,” Kara said.

“Life is always unfair. I’ve never expected it to be anything else. And since my father died, I’ve been reminded of this almost a half-dozen times a day. Nothing is fair for anyone now. We’re all of us struggling, all of us frightened.

“Hardacre is all but ready to throttle itself, and the situation here, I’m not sure I understand it, but it is a situation, that’s for sure. Even the Roil is frightened, or it wouldn’t continue its attack with such urgency. I mean, what need does it have for human agents now, and yet it still infects them.”

He pulled from her grip. Kara might not have noticed it, but she was shaking. David said, “We’re stuck with doing the best we can with what we have. I suppose that has always been the way of it. If I give into my grief now, all I have in my future is madness and killing, and the spectre of Old Men hunting me down.”

“ The Old Men?” Kara asked.”Yes, they’re after me. Don’t worry, they’re still a long way away, but they see me just as abhorrent as I saw the mindless Cadell. They’re coming to tear me from the earth if they can.”

“Obviously they won’t be interested in any of your friends.”

That stopped him; he’d forgotten what it was like to have friends. Those had been substituted by suppliers and addicts and little else over the last few years. Even Cadell had been more of a supplier than a friend. After all, what friend would give you this?

“Of course, they’re all damned, too,” David said. He studied his room: five steps to the door, no window, just a narrow vent. “So when do you think we will be allowed to leave? You’re not in trouble, and I’m guessing you will be accompanying us to Tearwin Meet.”

“Soon and yes, I’ll be facing the headwinds full on with you.” She smiled. “Not that I’m much good. Look at these hands, they’re almost as soft as yours.”

“They’ll toughen up,” Margaret said. “Now, what do you mean by soon?”

“Tomorrow, I’d guess, after the reception. I suspect that all Mother Graine wanted was to see you were capable of finishing this.”

“And I’ve passed the test so far?” David said.

“So far…” Kara reached into her pocket and pulled out a small device. She pressed it once, and it began to keen, a shrill mechanical sound, like a tiny engine weeping. She looked back at the door, waited a moment, and released a breath.

David raised an eyebrow at her.

“That should work for a minute. Things are bad here,” Kara said. “I think there has been something of a coup in the upper echelons. Amongst the Mothers themselves. Not too long ago you would see them all. Now we have Mother Graine alone speaking for them.”

“You think she’s killed them?” Margaret asked.

Kara looked like she was going to vomit. “No, that’s not what I think. That would be unthinkable-”

“And yet…”

“They’re trapped somewhere.”

Margaret shifted. “You said you were in trouble.”

“I’m very much in trouble. Even more so now that we’re having this conversation, believe me,” Kara Jade said. “But not as much as you.” Her eyes dropped to the Orbis. “The Mothers of the Sky wanted that ring, and I think they would have killed you to get it.”

“They’re going to have to join the queue,” David said. “Why did you drag me here?”

“Because I can keep an eye on you,” Kara said. “If I’d not gotten you here, they would have sent assassins. And in Hardacre, they could have gotten to you easily. But now, now something’s changed.”

David thought of Mr Sheff. Had he been working for Drift rather than out of some sense of grievance?

Margaret shook her head. “That logic is utterly flawed. Here we are surrounded by those who would kill him, if by stupidity alone.”

Kara smiled, raised her hands in the air, though David thought she looked like she’d rather hit someone. “Here they’re relaxed, they don’t expect you to do anything. I’m not even sure Mother Graine wants you harmed. And Drift is on a path to the Deep North: every moment brings us closer.”

“But we can't stay here, you know what they want to do with me. If they want the Orbis, they’ll need to kill me,” David said.

Kara patted his arm. “You die, and everything starts over again. We're going to be waiting weeks, I suppose. And how tedious would that be? Besides, the Roil has started to move so much faster than before, it's picked up pace.”

“The Roil is like any storm, I guess,” David said. “Watch a storm and it hardly seems to move, it glowers and it boils, but it appears stationary. And then, all at once it is upon you. Fury and fire, and you realise the only one that wasn't moving was you. The Roil's moving now, and it's moving fast.”

“Been caught out in a few storms, have you?” Kara Jade said. “I know storms, the Dawn and I ride them. You won't be caught in that storm, David. Nor would I have Margaret and I suffer the inconvenience of your funeral.”

“Thank you for your sympathy,” David muttered. “Perhaps you could deliver the eulogy.”

Kara cleared her throat. “Here lies a man that was two men, and neither of them up to much. Couldn't hold his liquor for one.”

Margaret turned towards Kara. David sighed. “She is right, though.”

“Can we leave the joking until we are out of here?” Margaret said. “Yes, of course. I’m sorry,” David said.

Kara looked at Margaret, and nodded.

“Good, then tonight, after the reception we make a break for it.” “Why not now?” David asked.

Kara laughed. “Right now, I couldn’t get you out of here. It’s one thing for me to sneak through the guarding stations, another for you two. There are traps, patches of bad air, and odd gravities that won’t bother me, but will certainly have an effect on you two. I want us to escape, to finish what I know needs to be done, but I don’t want to kill either of you doing it. Look, you are safe enough now. Just be patient.”