Steven Harper - The Havoc Machine

“That was impressive,” Sofiya said. “And more than a little disgusting.”

“Thank you,” Thad acknowledged. “Speaking of disgusting, we need to talk.”

“Hm.” Sofiya pulled Thad farther away from the Tilt, onto trampled grass. “I told you before-not here in the open.”

The boy came with them. His eyes were large. “You were incredible! I’ve never seen anything like it! You swallowed that whole knife! And then two knives! And then a sword! How do you do that? Have you ever cut yourself?”

“Only once,” Thad replied, feeling pleased nonetheless, especially after the lackluster audience. “And you aren’t to touch any of the-” He stopped. Why was he cautioning a machine?

“Go on,” Sofiya said with a small smile. She seemed to enjoy taunting him with the boy, and Thad didn’t understand that. Inside the Tilt, Antonio Tortelli did a double somersault into the hands of his father.

“Never mind,” Thad muttered.

“Bad boy, bad boy,” Dante interjected.

“I liked it,” the boy piped up. “I’ve never seen a circus before. Does the elephant have a name?”

“Betsy,” Thad replied absently, “though we tell everyone her name is Maharajah.”

“Does she eat clowns?”

Before Thad could reply, Dodd emerged from the Tilt, brandishing his cane. Under the ridiculous top hat he was a handsome man, sandy-haired and brown-eyed, not yet thirty. Young for a ringmaster. He’d managed to grow respectable side whiskers, at least, though they did little to make him look older. He was also a talented tinker and blacksmith who could make basic repairs to automatons and even build simple machines if had the plans, but he wasn’t a clockworker. Lately, Thad had noticed he moved heavier than usual, and when he wasn’t in the ring, he had stopped smiling. His top hat seemed to weigh him down.

“There you are,” he said. The calliope hooted in the background, providing music for the Tortellis. “You said you wanted to talk, and I have time now. Once the flyers are finished, the joeys will come on for a while, though even they won’t get much out of this crowd.”

“It’s less of a crowd,” Thad observed, putting off the inevitable, “and more of a sprinkle.”

Dodd rubbed his face with his free hand. “I know. And frankly, we’re in deep. If we don’t get more people in, we won’t even be able to buy coal to fire up the locomotive and leave town.” He caught sight of Sofiya. “I don’t believe we’ve met.”

Thad made introductions, though he left the boy out, which naturally meant that Dodd turned to him. “And who’s this strapping young lad, then?”

They had a story ready, that the boy didn’t understand English and that Thad was thinking about taking him on as an apprentice, that Thad preferred to keep his name a-

“His name,” Sofiya put in with a mischievous look at Thad, “is Nikolai.”

“Pleased to meet you, Nikolai.” Dodd shook the boy’s rag-wrapped hand. “You can call me Ringmaster Dodd.”

“Nikolai,” the boy said, as if he were tasting the word.

“Nikolai?” Thad repeated, caught completely off guard.

“That is his name, isn’t it?” Dodd looked a bit puzzled.

“Of course.” Sofiya put her hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Everyone needs a name. Thad and I are looking after him, Ringmaster.”

“Are you?” Dodd said, apparently not sure how to react.

“Nikolai,” the boy said again.

“He’s an automaton,” Thad told him abruptly.

A moment of silence stretched out amid the group. Sofiya stared at Thad, her eyes wide, her mouth an O.

“What?” Thad said. “Was that a secret?”

“I’m not supposed to tell anyone,” Nikolai said softly. “Mr. Havoc would get angry.”

Thad shrugged. “You don’t have to worry about what Mr. Havoc thinks anymore.”

“Oh. That’s true,” said Nikolai.

“Who’s Mr. Havoc?” asked Dodd.

“The clockworker who built Nikolai.”

“Ah.” Dodd nodded. “Does he also build elephants, by chance?”

“Not these days.”

“Now, look-” said Sofiya.

“Pity. Not that we have the money to pay for one. Is Nikolai joining us? Is that why you bought him?”

Thad made a face. “I didn’t buy him.”

“May I have him, then? I’ll take good care of him.”

“No!” Nikolai grabbed Thad’s hand in a tight grip. Thad felt his metal joints through the rags. “You can’t give me away!”

“He seems rather attached to me,” Thad replied, surprised at his own regret.

“That’s incredible workmanship. I had no idea he wasn’t real.” Dodd knelt down again to look at Nikolai who stared back at him. “Can he perform? We’re short, you know.”

Sofiya coughed loudly. A gleam of metal caught Thad’s eye and he glanced up. A spider was perched on top of the Tilt, the main tent. Thad tensed. The memory of Blackie’s blood spread through his mind. Even as he watched, the spider moved unhurriedly around the curve of canvas and out of sight. The outrage returned and made Thad’s hands shake. A clockworker was forcing him to betray his friends.

Just do it now, he thought. And plan for later.

Thad cleared his own throat. “At any rate, Dodd, I did want to ask-”

“We have an offer for you,” Sofiya interrupted.

“I thought I was going to do this,” Thad protested.

Sofiya ignored him. “Ringmaster Dodd, I work for a man who wishes for your circus to appear in Russia. Saint Petersburg.”

“The capital,” Dodd said. “Why?”

“Mr. Griffin,” Thad said, jumping in, “is a difficult traveler and needs a train to take him. He’s willing to pay quite a lot if we can get him there in the next few days.”

Dodd shook his head. “Why doesn’t this Mr. Griffin take a passenger train?”

“That would be unwise of him,” Sofiya said. “You have heard of the unrest, have you not? Bad economic times.” And she explained the uprisings that made train travel difficult.

“Ah. And you think the peasants won’t bother a circus,” Dodd finished for her.

Thad pursed his lips and glanced around for spiders. “You have it. And once we’re there, we could perform for the Russians. Perhaps even the tsar. It’s a wonderful opportunity.”

“Is it?” A hard look crossed Dodd’s face. “I remember a wonderful opportunity that took us to Kiev.”

Uh-oh. This wasn’t going well. “Everyone loves a circus,” Thad said, but it sounded lame in his ears. “No one will bother you. Us.”

The spider on the Tilt was back. A second one came with it. They seemed to be following the conversation. Thad had to force himself to pay attention to Dodd.

The ringmaster shook his head. “The last time we took on passengers, the Gonta-Zalizniaks nearly killed us all.”

“Look, you said yourself that if we don’t get more people in to see us, the circus will be stranded here in Lithuania.” Thad worked to keep the desperation out of his voice. The worst part was that he agreed with Dodd, and was arguing on behalf of something he hated. He felt like he’d been rolling in pig manure. “Do you honestly think we’ll be getting more people in ever? Today’s Saturday, and the stands aren’t even half full.” Come on, Dodd. This is quick money. An easy choice.

“The tsar does enjoy a circus,” Sofiya said. She had seen the spiders, too.

“We’re not much of a circus anymore.” Dodd drew his cane through his fingers. “The Gonta-Zalizniaks destroyed our mechanical elephant, and we lost all our other machines in the flood of Kiev. Even mine were wiped away. Half our performers scarpered during the attack, and we haven’t found them. Hell, Nathan’s the manager, but he’s had to go back to clowning to fill in the gaps.”