Blood and Steam (The Tinkerer's Daughter) Read online

“My only clear memory of my father is from the day he left me. That frosty autumn morning remains vivid in my memory as if I were there now watching the scene play out, though I can’t seem to recall any other day before it…”

  My breath caught in my chest. “It’s my mother’s journal. I never knew Tinker had this. Why didn’t he tell me?”

  “Perhaps he was waiting until you were ready,” she said.

  I considered that. “I think he may have forgotten. His memory wasn’t very good towards the end.”

  “A tragic end for such a great mind,” she said.

  “You knew him, didn’t you?”

  She tilted her head sideways, remembering. “I knew of him. Everyone knew of Clay Tinkerman.”

  “Clay?” I said. “That’s an odd name. Are you sure we’re talking about the same person?” This was the first time I had ever heard Tinker’s given name. I had only ever known him as Tinker.

  She smiled. “Indeed. He hated that name. Everyone called him Tinkerman until he adopted Breeze. She’s the one that came up with Tinker, and it stuck.”

  I frowned. It bothered me that the old woman knew more about Tinker than I did. I suddenly wondered what else she knew. “Did you ever meet him?”

  “Oh, in passing,” she said with slight smile.

  I considered that. “What was he like then?” I said. “Before the Vangars came, I mean.”

  She stared at me with glistening eyes. She began to speak, but not about Tinker. Not at first. She went further back, to the beginning of it all. Her words were not the tale of a lonely old woman living in a cave, but that of a historian who has made a long and careful study of the world.

  She described the thousand-year war between the Tal’mar and the humans. She told me about the feuding nature of the two races and how a handful of good people had tried many times over the centuries to end the warfare, but their efforts were always in vain. Over time, the hatred ran so deep that the two kingdoms continued to fight without even knowing why.

  Ana described a soldier named Bran Vale who spent his entire life trying to forge a treaty between the two cultures. Bran had been my grandfather, of course. He abandoned my mother with Tinker in order to bring a peace accord to the Tal’mar. His mission failed when he was murdered, but his actions set many other things in motion that ended up changing our world.

  I didn’t know much else about him. I was about to say so, but she shushed me and continued on. Ana began to talk about the old inventor named Tinkerman and the young half-breed named Breeze who became his daughter. As she spoke, I began to realize that Ana knew far more about my own past than I did. I pried for more information and at times, it almost seemed she spoke straight from her memory, as if she had forgotten I was even there. That night, Ana finally confided the truth to me. I had been listening to her stories for hours, and then the realization hit me:

  “You knew them, didn’t you,” I said. It wasn’t a question, but a statement. “You knew my mother and father, and Tinker… who are you?”

  She sighed. “My name is Analyn Trader,” she said in a sad voice. Your mother and father were dear friends of mine, as was Tinker.”

  I stared at her for a moment, trying to put it all together. Tinker’s old stories swam through my mind. I remembered the name Analyn and connected it with the teacher who had befriended my mother. She was the woman who had led the rebellion against the Vangars. “You’re the queen!” I said.

  “No. Not now, not ever.”

  “But you’re king Ryshan’s daughter.”

  “And King Ryshan is dead, and so is our kingdom,” Analyn said.

  I slammed my fist on the table. “No! You’re the rightful heir to the throne.”

  “I know when I’m beaten,” she said in a flat tone. “Perhaps you should learn that as well.”

  I rose from the chair and began pacing back and forth. “All those years,” I said. “All of those things that happened… how could you just abandon your people?”

  Analyn pursed her lips and turned her gaze on the fire. “I did what I must to keep us all alive,” she said. “As did Tinker.”

  I considered that, and slowly realized what it meant. “You were there with us on the mountain, when I was an infant. When my mother died.”

  “Yes.”

  “But what happened? How did we end up in Avenston? How did you end up here?”

  “Tinker and I had to do something,” she said. “The two of us couldn’t raise you and Kale up on that mountain alone. It wouldn’t have been right. Avenston seemed the safest place. There you could be around others. We hoped there were enough refugees in the city that the Vangars wouldn’t notice you. I see now that it worked.”

  “What about you?” I said. “Why didn’t you come?”

  “For what?” she said. “So the Vangars could capture me once and for all? So they could parade my corpse around the city and guarantee that no one would ever rise up against them again? No, I did what I must. I did what was best for all of us.”

  I leaned closer, staring into her eyes. “I’ll tell them!” I said. “I’ll go back to Avenston and let everyone know that their queen is still alive. That’ll put a fire in their bellies.”

  “You’ll do no such thing!” she said angrily. “The people, my people are not ready for this.”

  “How do you know? You haven’t even seen them in years. You’ve let them all think you died up in the mountains. How can you say they’re not ready for the truth?”

  “Because I told her,” said a low voice, somewhere down the tunnel.

  I spun around and saw a tall, broad-shouldered Tal’mar man step into the light. He wore a dark green cloak with the hood slid back over his shoulders. I saw the glint of steel daggers hanging from his belt.

  I sized him up, frowning, trying to decide if he was truly a Tal’mar or not. He wore the clothes of the Tal’mar and his face looked Tal’mar. So did his ears. But he was so tall, so broad in the chest and shoulders. I had known a Tal’mar when I was young, and seen a few more, but never one so tall. And those dark brown eyes… those were not Tal’mar eyes.

  My gaze danced back and forth between the two of them, putting it all together. “You’re the one from my dream,” I said. “You lied to me, Analyn. You said we were alone.”

  “One of many lies, I’m afraid. I couldn’t tell you the truth until I was sure of how you would react. I had to know-”

  “Know what?” I said angrily. “That I’m not a turncoat? That I would keep your secret?”

  “Yes,” she said patiently. “Yes, that and so much more.”

  “We had to know what had become of the refugees,” the stranger said. “We couldn’t risk that you were a spy.”

  I eyed him up and down. “Who are you? What do you have to do with all of this? You don’t look like a Tal’mar to me.”

  “That’s because I’m not,” he said. “Not fully, anyway. I’m a half-breed, like our mother.”

  “You’re not-” I broke off midsentence.

  Our mother? What did he mean by that? Was this some sort of trick? I wasn’t sure, but I did know that his story wasn’t adding up. My mother had died just after my birth. I spun around, snatching up my revolver as I rose out of the chair. I released the safety and lined the barrel up at his chest.

  “I don’t know who you are, but if you don’t give me some straight answers I’ll put a hole through you the size of a cannonball,” I said.

  “Calmly, River,” Analyn said behind me. “I don’t think you want to kill your own brother.”

  My chest rose and fell quickly, my heart drumming in my ears. “He’s lying,” I said. “He tricked you.” I fixed my gaze on the stranger. “What do you want? What’s your game, Tal’mar?”

  “You’re wrong,” he said calmly. “I know you believe our mother died, but you’re wrong. She found it, River. She found the city in the wastes.”

  I shook my head, gripping the revolver as if it was the last solid thing in the world. Analyn stepped cl
ose behind me. She put her hand on my arm, forcing it down. In my ear, she whispered: “This is your brother, River. Your own blood. His name is Crowasten’Talbresha. It means vengeful sword of the north wind.”

  “Call me Crow,” he said with a half-smile. “My name is such a mouthful. I don’t know what our mother was thinking, giving me that name.”

  My mind raced. How could I know if this was the truth? Was it possible that Crow was truly my blood? My own brother? It was too much to grasp. I’d lived my entire life believing that I had no blood relatives left alive. Tinker and Kale were all I’d had in the world; the closest I had ever come to family.

  I stared at him, doubtful, wondering. Did he look like her? I couldn’t be sure. I had only seen one faded old painting of my mother, and that was from when she was very young. I couldn’t see a family resemblance. There was something in the face, though. Something in the cheekbones. And those shoulders and dark eyes… he must have stood head and shoulders taller than the rest of the Tal’mar. Had Crow inherited those features from our human grandfather?

  I slumped into a chair to keep my knees from buckling underneath me. Analyn took the revolver out of my hand and set it back on the table. “I’ll make some tea,” she said softly. “Crow, have a seat. Give your sister a few minutes.”

  He settled down across from me, staring at me, grinning like a fool. I stared back, boring into those dark eyes, still not daring to believe. After a minute, I couldn’t tolerate it anymore.

  “Why are you staring at me like that?” I said angrily.

  “Because all of my life I have dreamed of the day I would meet my big sister, and this is that day.”

  I lowered my gaze to the table and covered my face in my hands so he wouldn’t see the tears moistening my eyes. I hate it when people see my cry. It makes me angry. Only this time, I couldn’t be angry. I could only think that somehow, miraculously, it was all true. This Tal’mar was my brother. My own blood.

  “My mother is alive?” I said quietly to the table.

  “Yes. She wants very much to see you. I’d like to take you to her, but we don’t have much time.”

  I wiped the tears away and raised my head to stare at him. I barely noticed Analyn setting the teapot on the table next to us, quietly filling three cups. “If it’s true, why didn’t she come to me?” I said, my voice tainted with anger. “If you’re really my brother, why are you here now? You’ve waited this long, why bother come at all?”

  “It’s not as simple as that,” Analyn said, settling down beside me. “Your mother found the city, but she wasn’t able to return. Be patient. Crow will explain everything.”

  “This was our first opportunity,” he said. “You must believe me, things in Sanctuary are complicated. Our mother would have returned, but it wasn’t safe until now, not even to send me. You must understand that.”

  “But I don’t understand,” I said. “Why can’t she leave? Why isn’t it safe? What is this city that she found?”

  “How can I describe Sanctuary?” he said, throwing his gaze up to the ceiling. “It is a place of magic and wonder. It is the source. You won’t truly understand until you see it.”

  “Why is it called Sanctuary? What does that name mean?”

  “It is a word from our ancient history. Tens of thousands of years ago, our ancestors believed their gods lived on an island called Sanctuary. It was the home of immortals, and the source of magic. It was an important part of their culture.”

  “So they named the city in the wastes after this island?”

  “No, not them. They were dead for many thousands of years when the city was built. The name Sanctuary had become part of mythology by then, only remembered by a few scholars and historians.”

  “I’m afraid I don’t understand any of this,” I said.

  Analyn handed him a cup of tea, and the steam curled up around his face as he considered my questions. “Let me explain it simply,” he said. “We don’t know the entire history yet, but we’re studying the libraries. Soon all will be known. We have discovered that many civilizations have come and gone throughout the history of our world. Mankind has gone through golden ages of high technology and incredible power, as well as dark ages of superstition and ignorance. It seems to be an eternal cycle.”

  “I wonder where we are in that cycle now,” I mused.

  He laughed. “Perhaps we will see that more clearly in the future, though it is a complicated study. Outside forces often influence the cycles. Weather patterns and seasons change, among other things. Something spectacular happened to our ancestors, for example.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Three thousand years ago, a massive cataclysm destroyed everything. It was something monumental, something that changed the face of the entire world. It killed millions of people overnight, and millions more in the weeks and months that followed.”

  “Millions?” I said skeptically. “Are you saying that there were millions of people here, once?” That seemed highly unlikely. Avenston was the largest city in the entire kingdom, and it was only home to eight thousand people. At its peak, just after the Vangars drove everyone into the city, Avenston still only had a population of sixteen thousand. As far as I knew, it was the largest city that had ever existed.

  “We don’t know much about them yet,” Crow said. “But here’s the important part: after the cataclysm, a few scattered survivors were drawn together by a bright light in the sky. It led them north, deep into the wilderness. When they found the source of the light, they also discovered the cause of the cataclysm. A giant stone the size of a mountain had fallen from the heavens. When it struck the earth, the dust cloud blocked out the sun for years. It lowered temperatures across the entire world, destroying harvests and covering entire kingdoms in ice. According to records, the seas even froze over.”

  “But there were survivors?”

  “Yes, because of the stone,” he said with a sly smile.

  I rolled my eyes. “A stone saved people? You just said it killed millions.”

  “The light of the stone brought the survivors together, to a place where they might help each other, and it also made it possible for them to build a city.”

  “The stone helped them build a city?” I said skeptically.

  An amused look crept over his face. “The survivors discovered that the stone was made of some strange new element, something that had never been seen in our world before. Most importantly, the stone possessed a strange, powerful energy.”

  “Energy?” I said. “Like fuel?”

  “Yes, in a way. The stone could be used to power machines.”

  “So that’s how they built the city,” I said.

  “Exactly.”

  “And the city is still there,” I said. “That’s what my… our mother found?”

  “Yes.”

  “What are the people in Sanctuary like?”

  “There are none. When our mother found the city, she found it deserted.”

  “What happened to the survivors then, to their descendents? Did the Vangars destroy them?” He laughed. I shot him a glare. I don’t like being laughed at.

  “Don’t take offense,” he said. “I understand why you might think that, but no, it was not the Vangars. It was the stone. The very stone that saved them all, almost killed them,”

  Analyn had settled into the chair next to me and had been listening to our conversation quietly. I glanced at her. “You believe all of this?” I said.

  She smiled wisely. “Listen,” she said. “Wait until you’ve heard the entire story before you form your opinion.”

  I sighed. “Fine. So the stone that somehow saved all these people then turned around and killed them?”

  “Something like that,” Crow said. “The history books are vague. From what we can discern, the people of the city had been mining this element out of the stone to use it in their machines. They had been quarrying it and keeping it in large containers. Gradually, over time, the properties of th
e stone began to change. First it cooled, and eventually it turned into liquid. Several containers burst, releasing the liquid into the water supply.”

  “Was it poisonous?” I said. “Is that what killed them?”

  “No, but it sickened them. As the citizens worked to shore up their storage of the remaining material, they realized the stuff was making them ill. It was affecting their minds, giving them unnatural visions and hallucinations. In less than a year, almost everyone in the city had migrated away, moving south through the Blackrock Mountains and back out into the world of their ancestors. Only a few hundred people stayed behind to continue with the repairs.”

  “And staying in Sanctuary killed them,” I said.

  “Perhaps, some of them. They finished the repairs, however. When it was all done, those who had stayed behind had been changed. Some of the energy from the liquid had leached into their bodies, altering their very nature. They too, had to leave, for fear the liquid would eventually destroy them.”

  “And then the city was empty,” I said as he trailed off. “But there’s more to the story, isn’t there?”

  He grinned, glancing at Analyn. “Don’t you see, River? Don’t you understand what happened to the survivors?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know. Did they die in the snow?”

  “No,” Analyn said in a patient voice. “What Crow is trying to say is that the last survivors to leave Sanctuary were the ancestors of the Tal’mar. Of all the races, they were the most changed because they remained in the city longest.”

  Suddenly I understood. “The humans were the first to leave,” I said.

  “Exactly, therefore they remain more or less unchanged.”

  “And the powers of the Tal’mar, the ability to see at night and to reach inside people with their minds…”

  “All from the stone,” Analyn said. “Or rather the liquid it became. It changed them into an entirely new species.”

  “That means we all started the same,” I said. “We all came from the same race of people. But if that’s true, what about the Kanters? The giants aren’t like us at all.”

  “The same goes for them, and most likely the Vangars as well,” Crow said.