Steven Harper - The Impossible Cube

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.”

They took several moments to gather equipment. Alice wanted to get the firefly jar from Feng, and Gavin wanted weapons. He couldn’t bring himself to use actual pistols, however. A lifetime of training had instilled a healthy fear of anything that created flame, a deadly threat on an airship. Even after several weeks on the Lady , which used newfangled helium, Gavin still shunned gunpowder for the cutlass of shatterproof glass favored by airmen. Unfortunately, he no longer had a flechette pistol, which used compressed air to fire glass needles. The circus, meanwhile, had gone back to sleep, recovered from its encounter with the gendarmes Phipps had commandeered, but Gavin wondered how long before they returned-and how many they’d encounter on the way to the church, which was why he wanted weapons. He looked at Dr. Clef’s power canon where it lay on the Lady ’s deck, and sighed with regret.

“It’s too heavy,” Gavin said. “I wouldn’t get twenty yards.”

“Perhaps you could make modifications with this.” Dr. Clef held up a spool of alloy wire, the same stuff as the endoskeleton rolled up and lying on the port side of the deck. “Can you do it alone? I have fear that we shall fight if I assist.”

Gavin looked at the wire and at the power cannon. His brain leaped ahead, and he saw wires and pulsing power and batteries. He ran his hands over the cannon, able to feel how it all fit together, every bolt, every shard, every pathway, right down to the tiny pieces so small they couldn’t hold a name. He saw a number of fascinating ways to reshape them, gently move matter and energy along a number of different venues. He was only vaguely aware that Dr. Clef, that annoying Dr. Clef, had withdrawn, and the vibrations of his receding footsteps on the deck came out as long, distorted strings that vibrated against the air and kicked it about. Gavin’s fingers flew, snatching up tools and setting them down again, braiding wire, snipping metal, connecting pieces of the universe in new ways.

“Gavin?”

The high-pitched voice intruded, interrupted, interjected. He turned to snarl at the interruption-

— and saw that it was a woman. He knew her. He… had feelings for her. He struggled for a moment. She had broken his concentration, which made him angry, but she was also someone to be trusted, someone he didn’t want to be angry at. The contradictory feelings warred for a split second, equally matched.

Alice. Her name was Alice. The new fact tipped the balance, and in a flash he remembered that she wasn’t someone who deserved disdain. He twisted inside like a cat changing its mind in midleap and yanked back the retort.

“Alice?” he gasped, and realized he was panting. A trickle of sweat slid down his cheek. “What’s going on?”

“I was going to ask you the same thing.” She had changed into trousers, which Gavin found strangely attractive on a woman. They accentuated her hips and showed her legs. She was wearing a tighter-fitting blouse as well, and it clung to her neck and breasts. Her braided hair caught the moon and held it. The silvery light shifted, moving in a shower of particles, then splashing as a wave, but doing both at the same time, just as the Impossible Cube had twisted and changed before his eyes. It was beautiful and terrible all at once, and Gavin couldn’t look away if he wanted to. For a moment it was hard to breathe.