Clockwork Legion (Aboard the Great Iron Horse Book 4) Page 6

  The loss of the machine left an ache in her heart. It was like losing Tinker all over again. Tinker had conceived the original steamcycle when she was just a child. She had helped him work on it over the years, and eventually engineered a few improvements, like the cushioned seat and the coil-spring shocks.

  On the day Tinker died, River had escaped from the Vangars on his boneshaker. That machine had been destroyed, but River’s new boneshaker had been modeled on the original, with a few minor improvements. Superficially, it was almost exactly like Tinker’s. And now it was gone.

  River scanned the cliffs in either direction, looking for another crossing point. She didn’t see anything promising, so she started into the jungle, following the old tracks. She moved at a brisk pace, her senses on high alert as she brushed aside the ferns and branches that blocked her path. Overhead, a group of monkeys followed along, occasionally letting out wild screeches to warn her that she was in their territory. River didn’t pay much attention. She wasn’t worried about tiny monkeys or other small jungle creatures. It was the massive dragon-kin Socrates called dinosaurs that had her concerned.

  Once or twice, River strayed from the path and found herself in dense, impassable jungle. It quickly became apparent that she could not progress any farther without a machete -or, preferably, a steamscout equipped with a saw blade- and so she returned to the tracks. Eventually, the land sloped upwards and River made a short climb to the top of a hill. As she came over the rise, she got a bird’s-eye view of the surrounding jungle.

  River caught her breath as her gaze fell on a massive stone pyramid in the distance. It was a few miles off, but it was so huge that it seemed like she could reach out and touch it. The structure had terraced steps or walkways leading up its face. Gardens lined the terraces, and while it was hard to tell from that distance, River was sure she saw people on the steps tending the plants and going in and out of the great entrance.

  A tower of gears rose up alongside the pyramid, but from that distance, River couldn’t be sure what purpose the mechanism served. At the very peak of the pyramid rose a shaft of some sort, like a lightning rod pointing up into the heavens.

  Surrounding the great pyramid, River saw the caps of other, much smaller pyramids. She saw other signs of civilization as well: broad, clear-cut swaths through the jungle -these were almost certainly roads- and she caught glimpses of additional stone structures peeking out through the foliage. This, River realized, was a new civilization!

  She turned in a slow circle, getting her bearings. It only took a second to realize that less than a mile back, she had completely bypassed a bridge over the river. This was an almost direct route back the way she had come. She made a mental map of the area, noting the large trees, boulders, and other landmarks that would help her find her way. Once she had picked out a path, River broke into a run.

  A smile came to her lips. Socrates would be thrilled to hear of her discovery…

  Chapter 7

  Socrates and his crew rushed the wrecked train as soon as River was out of sight on her boneshaker. They were armed with muskets and swords, and ready for just about anything. They had seen movement inside the first passenger car, so Socrates led his team there first.

  “Weapons ready!” he commanded, putting his hand on the door handle. They raised their bows and firearms. Socrates twisted the handle, and then he slid the door open.

  There was a hissing sound, followed by a bloodcurdling shriek. A dark shape came hurtling through the open door. The creature hit Socrates at full speed, with a surprising amount of force. The automaton stumbled back, dropping his musket as the mass of fur and flailing limbs bore him down. He fell off the stairs and landed on the slope next to the train.

  The crew came forward with their weapons ready, but they couldn’t fire without risking harm to the automaton. Socrates struggled alone against his assailant. Claws dug into his face and scalp. Fangs latched onto his forehead, gnawing, slavering. He fought valiantly, but could not seem to get the upper hand on this violent creature.

  A minute passed, and finally after a heroic battle, the ape managed to get a grip on the beast with his left hand. He pulled it away from his face and held the creature at arm’s length, studying it as it thrashed and screamed at him. It was surprisingly small, considering the battle it had put up. The creature bared its fangs, shrieking at him with a high-pitched rattle.

  “What is that thing?” Micah said from the roof of the Iron Horse.

  “A primate of some sort,” said Socrates, tilting it back and forth. The little beast raged, clawing at his midnight blue fur, snarling and hissing at him.

  “What’s it saying?” That was Morgane, the young woman from Stormshield who had joined the crew after murdering her father. This latter part was a secret known only to Socrates. He swiveled his head to look at her.

  “How should I know if it’s saying anything at all?”

  Thane, the tall, blond-haired bard doubled over with laughter. “You don’t speak its language?” he said “It’s obviously a relative of yours!”

  Socrates glared at him. Morgane looked away in embarrassment.

  Socrates snorted at the bard’s idea of a joke and puff of steam rolled up from the exhaust pipe behind his ear. He lifted the creature up to the ledge of the roof, and it leapt from his hands. It scurried across the top of the railcar and climbed up into the nearby branches. He glanced at the rest of the crew, and they hurried to cover their grins.

  “You’ve had your fun,” he said. “Let’s keep moving.”

  Socrates retrieved his musket and motioned for the others to follow as he stepped inside the train. Inside the passenger car, they found the bodies of three passengers. They were little more than skeletons. Thane poked one with the barrel of his blunderbuss, and it collapsed. The bones shattered as they fell to the floor, and the clothing turned to dust.

  “Don’t touch anything!” Socrates said angrily. “We don’t know yet what killed these people. They may have been carrying a disease!”

  Thane took a step back, eyeing the body uncertainly. Kynan, one of several Tal’mar warriors among the crew, lowered his bow and knelt down next to the remains.

  “How long have they been here?” he said.

  Socrates shook his head. “It’s impossible to say. Possibly even centuries. They’re wearing civilian clothing, so they must have been passengers. I suppose we will find the crew in one of the other cars.”

  He turned his head as he spoke, examining the roof of the compartment. He noted several broken pipes and a section of copper wiring hanging down. He examined them quickly, and then moved on to the next car without further statement.

  The door was sealed, and it took some time to pry it open. When it finally released, there was a hiss of air rushing into the compartment. The scent of ancient death mingled with the sickly-sweet aroma of flowery perfume washed over them. Thane almost gagged. He hid his face in his elbow. Behind him, Morgane dropped the double-barreled scattergun she’d been carrying and covered her face with a kerchief. Socrates stepped inside, motioning for the others to follow.

  This was another passenger car, almost identical to the first, and it contained more than a dozen occupants. Strangely, the bodies were so well preserved that they almost seemed alive. It was as if they had fallen asleep, and at that very moment been frozen in time. Their flesh was dry and leathery, as if the moisture had been sucked out, and although the bodies remained intact, the eyeballs were missing.

  “What happened to them?” Thane said, leaning down to peer into the black eye sockets of a middle-aged man. The deceased passenger was wearing a long black coat and top hat that were perfectly preserved, and had a cane resting across his lap. If not for the awkward way he was slumped over in the seat, he almost seemed alive.

  “This car was sealed at the time of the crash,” Socrates said. “I believe there may have been a malfunction with the oxygen system. The air in this room was sucked out, causing these poor people to suffocate.
The lack of oxygen most likely made them lose consciousness rather quickly.”

  A chill ran down the bard’s spine. It was one thing to share a room with a few ancient skeletons. A railcar full of mummified corpses was entirely different. These remains still had skin. It was almost possible to imagine what they had looked like in life… in fact, they seemed not so far removed from it. For all appearances, they could have died just a few days ago.

  “Next car?” Thane said, stifling a shiver.

  Socrates grinned. “Perhaps you’d be more comfortable waiting outside with my relatives.”

  Thane didn’t laugh. Apparently, the joke had run its course.

  As they moved deeper into the train, they found twenty-three more skeletons. Some had died due to minor injuries, others to starvation. It was impossible to tell if any of the survivors had left the train. Morgane made a comment about this as they moved through the corridors towards the last few cars.

  “If anyone escaped the accident, they may have gone for help,” said Socrates, “but I doubt they made it far. I want to find the passenger manifest and the Engineer’s log. That’s our only hope of understanding what caused all of this.”

  They heard a commotion outside, and Socrates leaned across one of the bench seats to gaze out the window. “River is back,” he said, struggling to get the window open. It took a moment, but finally came free with a pop! He stuck his head out, and called to get her attention.

  “Socrates!” River said, looking down the embankment from the tracks. “You won’t believe what I found.”

  “Wait for me there,” he said. “I’ll be done here shortly.”

  They quickly explored the last few cars, but didn’t find much of note. The cars were tilted at awkward angles, almost lying on their sides, which made the job particularly trying. Not long after that, they climbed out the rear of the train and hiked up to the Iron Horse to meet with River.

  The mechanic told the others the story of her adventure, becoming increasingly excited as she talked. By the time she reached the end of her tale, River’s words had strung into one long run-on sentence:

  “…And there were gardens on the pyramids, but I couldn’t see what they were growing, but there were people there -People, Socrates!- and they were working in the gardens, and the machine -I’m still not sure what it was, but it reminded me of the chronoforge, so maybe it’s an energy source or something- and there was a lightning rod… Socrates, we need to hurry!”

  Socrates watched her childish excitement with an amused grin. River’s eyes were wide and sparkling, her shoulders thrown back, her hand gestures spirited and sweeping. When she finally stopped talking, she realized that he had been staring at her with a strange look on his face.

  “What? What is it?” she said.

  “I haven’t seen you this excited in weeks. Not even when we found Dragonwall.”

  “Yes, well, the hallucinations sort of put a damper on my excitement then. Can we go now? Socrates you have to see this place. It’s amazing!”

  “Shortly. As soon as we locate the Engineer’s log and the crew’s manifest. In the meanwhile, why don’t you search the train for anything useful?”

  River’s expression sank.

  “It won’t take long,” Socrates promised.

  River’s lack of enthusiasm for the task was obvious. Nevertheless, she threw herself into her work. It wasn’t hard to locate the cargo and engineering cars, but there was a bit of a struggle when it came to retrieving their inventories. These were the cars tilted at a difficult angle, and the cargo box was lying completely on its side.

  At one point, Micah was helping her retrieve some tools and parts from the engineering car when he pulled a tarp away from the corner and discovered something of importance. “River!” he said, waving her over. “What is it?”

  She held her lantern in the air and looked the object up and down. There was an armature with a spindle on the top, so River gave it a spin. It turned easily, idling along without any assistance or any sign of stopping. The bearings made light clicking sounds as the armature spun inside the copper windings.

  “It’s a motor,” she said at last. “A large electric motor. I’ve never seen one so big… it must have been a prototype.”

  “Can we use it?” Micah said, his eyes wide in the darkness.

  She looked down at him. The halfling’s imp-like features were accentuated by the angle of the light, and he looked grotesque, almost like a gargoyle. Strangely, she found his appearance comforting. After all, Micah was without a doubt the nicest man she had ever met. At first, his appearance had seemed unusual to her, but now that she knew him well, the sight of Micah instantly brought a smile to her face.

  “It’s worthless,” she said at last. “This technology is inferior to steam power. Just look how bulky this thing is. It must weigh a thousand pounds. And there’s no way to power it. We would have to build a massive generator just to drive this thing, and for what? It can’t do anything a steam engine couldn’t do.”

  “Fair enough. Let’s get out of here, then.”

  He started to leave, but River didn’t move. She tapped her chin with her forefinger. “Then again, if I were to remove the armature and install a series of powerful magnets, I could convert it into a generator…”

  “Can we use one of those?” Micah said.

  River frowned. “I don’t know. Let’s take it, just in case. We’ll need the crane.”

  Micah sighed.

  The decision added three hours to their salvage operation. Half that time was spent assembling and disassembling the crane. Once the operation was underway, they had a huge struggle to get the motor out of the corner and across the overturned railcar. Unfortunately, this was the only way to get the motor close to the railcar’s door where it was accessible to the crane. It was back-breaking work, and required almost the entire crew, some pulling ropes, others pushing inside the car. When it was all said and done, the actual lifting part done by the crane took all of ten minutes. By then it was dark, and Vann had already rung the dinner bell.

  “I hope it was worth the trouble,” River said to Socrates as she checked the tie-downs connecting the motor to the floor of one of the cargo cars.

  “It’s a good find,” he said. “I’m sure we’ll put it to good use.”

  “What about the city?” River said. “Can we go now?”

  Socrates frowned. “Not just yet. There are too many variables when approaching a new civilization. After all, remember what happened when we pulled into Dragonwall?”

  “I suppose,” she said with a sigh. “Tomorrow, then?”

  “Yes, tomorrow. First thing.”

  River couldn’t conceal her disappointment. She left, stepping out into the passageway and ambling up the train towards the dining car. She understood her commander’s logic, but that didn’t do anything to stem her excitement over the discovery. For River, the best part of their journey was finding new and exciting things; things that no one had ever seen before. The civilization she had glimpsed earlier that day was the very definition of that. And the pyramids! What were they for? Who had built them? Her mind reeled at the possibilities.

  The entire crew had gathered in the dining car, and after a hard day’s work, they were all feeling rambunctious. The conversation was loud and boisterous, and already several people had started drinking and playing darts. As soon as dinner was over, they would clear the tables and the serious relaxation would start.

  River didn’t care to stick around for any of that. She filled a plate and took it back to her quarters. Pirate, the raccoon that had become the crew’s mascot, followed her through the passages. They passed through several cars before he finally succeed in getting her attention. First, he rubbed up against her leg and made a purring sound. When River ignored that, he barked at her. Finally, he scurried ahead of her and stopped in the middle of her path, standing upright on his hind legs. He held out one palm before her like a beggar.

  “Forget it,” Ri
ver said. “You’re already too fat.”

  Pirate made a sniffling sound and jammed his tiny fists into his eyes as if he were crying. River rolled her eyes. “Fine,” she said, tossing him a bit of buttery bread crust. “Just don’t expect me to cry for you when you drop dead of a heart attack.”

  Pirate didn’t hear her comment because he was already halfway back to the dining car.

  River ate her dinner and spent an hour studying before going to bed. She had several books in her bunkroom about reading and writing. Micah had already helped her understand some of the basics, the way certain shapes represented phonetic sounds, and the way those letters might be combined into a word. It was a surprisingly simple concept, and she wondered why she’d never grasped it before. Perhaps it hadn’t been important. Frankly, the only reason it was important now was because she wanted to be able to read some of the engineering manuals stored in the train’s library. River seemed to have reached the limits of her understanding, and without an outside source of knowledge, she simply couldn’t learn any more.

  Socrates was there, of course, and he had some advanced knowledge on the topics of engineering and mechanics. Unfortunately, the ape was usually too busy managing the train and the crew to sit with her for any period of time. And when it came down to it, River was better off having access to that information when she wanted and needed it, rather than waiting for Socrates to have the time for her.

  She composed a few sentences, checked them for errors, and then set her books aside. It had been a long, exhausting day. Especially the latter part. Stringing letters into words was more trying than repairing a boiler or even building a motor. She’d rather do just about anything else with her time… But there was only one way to learn, and she was determined.

  River woke before the sun the next morning and was ready to go in minutes. After a quick, ice-cold rinse in her bunkroom’s shower stall, River slipped into her canvas breeches and tall boots. She wore a white linen blouse under a burgundy-colored leather bodice, and a matching red bandana on her head to keep the sweat out of her eyes.