Clockwork Twist : Trick (10 page)

Twist laughed, feeling her tension break along with his own.  Tasha caught their attention long enough to get everyone moving again and led the way out through another passage in the rock.  They came quickly to another large cavern of softer sandstone, cut through on all sides by the same huge, circular holes that Twist had seen under Suez.  This time, however, the cavern was not empty.

A giant round hulk of metal sat in the center of the cavern on iron wheels like those on a train.  One end of it had a spherical shape while the other was conical and made entirely of round steel plates, covered with sharp teeth and spikes.  There was an open hatch on the top, with a ladder built into the metal on one side that led up to it from the ground.  Mohammed stood beside the ladder.  Ali joined him with a few quick words.

“That's the ugliest thing I've ever seen,” Jonas remarked as he, Twist, and Myra stood staring at it.

“Oh yes, I think so too,” Myra said earnestly. “It's terribly noisy, as well.”

Niko aimed his bow at Mohammed and Ali, who both stood ready and unmoving.  They gave him a nod and Niko pulled back the string of lightning.  They both fell to the ground with a loud, echoing crack in the wide cavern.  Twist jerked and stared at Niko in shock.

“Are you coming or not?” Niko asked as he collapsed the long bow until it fit into the contraption on his wrist and followed Tasha to the ladder in the side of the strange machine.

“We're leaving in that?” Twist asked. “What about the birds?  And what about them?” he asked, gesturing to Mohammed's and Ali's still forms on the ground.

“Cover story,” Niko called down from the top of the ladder.  “They don't want the other Cyphers to know they just betrayed them.”  With that, he disappeared through the hatch.

“And we can't launch the swallows without the right equipment,” Jonas added as he followed Niko.  “I guess they are going to leave them.”

“It's a trade, actually,” Tasha called down to them just before she disappeared through the hatch.

Twist followed close behind Myra as she too climbed up the ladder and then down through the hatch.  Inside the machine, they met someone new.  A man wearing a sand-colored cloak glanced back at them as Twist and Myra found a seat on one of two small benches that sat against the round walls on the inside.  Twist noticed instantly that it was very warm inside the cramped, windowless, metal space.  The man who sat near the front, before a wide array of complicated but crude looking controls, asked them a question.  To Twist's surprise, Jonas answered the man with a nod.

“You see?” Jonas said to Twist as he sat beside him, across from Niko and Tasha. “Now that is Arabic.”

“Oh yes, I recognized it instantly,” Twist said before looking away to shake his head.

The hatch was closed right away and then a rumbling, shuddering, grinding mechanical sound grew loud enough inside the machine to make it almost impossible to speak or be heard.  Somehow, Twist sensed that the machine was beginning to move forward through the vibration that accompanied the sound.

“Is this normal?” Twist yelled to Jonas at the top of his small voice.

“What?” Jonas yelled back.

Twist shook his head and gave up trying to speak entirely.  He instead looked to Myra, who was managing to keep a somewhat bemused smile on her face as she watched the machine shudder around her.  She still hadn't broken contact with him since they had been reunited and now held Twist's hand in both of hers.  Even in this distracting and noisy environment, Twist felt somehow quite at ease as he looked on her gleaming copper face and glittering blue jewel eyes.

She caught him looking and smiled back, appearing to laugh although Twist couldn't hear her voice.  She reached up with one hand and wound her fingers through the soft curls at his temple.  His skin prickled at the subtle touch and in an instant the noise and vibration disappeared completely from his senses with an inaudible pop.

“I don't want to be anyone's princess but yours,” she said, her voice clear in the sudden silence. “They were fools to think they could keep me.”

It took Twist a moment to figure out that she was speaking to him directly through his Sight, the same way that she had before he'd replaced her soul into her clockwork body.  He remembered the way that her spirit had looked in her crumbling palace, when they had met for the first time: perfect, lovely, and child-like in the skin that she wore first.  He couldn't help but smile as he looked at her in clockwork and jewels, considering her timeless, gleaming, and metallic beauty infinitely more captivating now.

“I can't blame them for trying,” he said easily in their private silence.

Myra laughed—a bright, ringing sound—and leaned closer to him.  Twist froze in dazzled surprise as she pressed her metal lips to his cheek and then pulled back, looking as if she would very much like to blush.

Before the sun managed to climb to the top of the sky, Twist, Jonas, and Myra stepped onto the Cairo-bound train with their new friends, Tasha and Niko.  They left Suez at a lightning pace, taking the very first train available, after being brought back by Tasha's Cypher ally to the spot where they had first lost Myra.  She had given him a small sack filled with glittering clear gems, and thanked him for his help.  The Cypher had nodded with a somewhat bitter expression, and then turned his massive subterranean vessel back into the sandy tunnels and disappeared.

“Were those pretty little crystals and the wooden birds really worth betraying their fellows?” Twist asked Jonas as they followed after Niko and Tasha through the crowded train.  The dry, dusty air inside the train felt even warmer than it had outside, and Twist absently pulled at his collar to lessen the feeling of the heat.

Pairs of small benches sat facing each other, and back to back, in two rows along either side of the train, below lace curtained windows and a line of very simple looking tin gaslights.  People moved around in the tight aisle looking for open seats and places to stow luggage.  As if out of habit, Myra kept close to Twist's back and gently held his arms while Jonas stayed close in front of him.  The two acted as a wonderful shield to save Twist from unavoidable knocks and bumps from the crowd around them.  Jonas, meanwhile, kept his uncovered gaze solidly on his feet.

“Last time I checked,” Jonas answered over his shoulder, “the price of a used swallow in good condition was well worth a great deal of risk.  Three of them, a handful of gems, and plausible deniability is simply too good of a deal for anyone to pass up.  What really bothers me is how Tasha could stand to lose them.”

“Over here!” Tasha called from up ahead, waving a white handkerchief at Twist and the others with a smile.

They managed to settle onto two benches—with just enough room for three to sit side by side on each—that faced each other on the less sunny side of the train.  A moment later, the train whistle called out its impatience to leave Suez.  The train moved with a jerk and then smoothly picked up speed along the tracks to Cairo.

“Well, this is lucky, isn't it?” Tasha asked brightly, patting at her brow with her handkerchief as she leaned against the windowsill. “I was worried we'd have to split up,” she said, glancing over the crowded train.

“Don't you like attention?” Niko asked, looking at her suspiciously.  As he was sitting near the aisle, Niko seemed to purposely take up both of the two spaces next to Tasha so that the few passengers still searching for seats had no choice but to pass him by looking slightly annoyed.

“It's a long way to Cairo,” Tasha said with a sigh. “I don't mind fans, but I don't want to have to be charming for the entire trip.”

“Fans?” Myra asked Twist, sitting on his right side, while Jonas filled the space to his left. “What does she mean?”

“Tasha is a magician, apparently,” Twist answered.

“Oh!” Myra toned, looking at her with wonder.

“You've seriously have never heard of Natasha Samara?” Jonas asked him. “Do you even read newspapers?  She's world famous!”  Twist gave him a sour look.

“I love magicians!” Myra said to Tasha, clapping her hands excitedly. “Do a trick.  Please!  Just one.”  Tasha and Niko both stared back at her, looking quite perplexed.

“Can I just say,” Niko began calmly, “that I'm rather disturbed that this thing seems to have such a lifelike personality.”

Myra's expression changed so quickly into chilly scorn that Twist heard the metal shriek softly as the plates of her face slid against each other into the new expression. “And just who, exactly, do you fancy you are calling a thing?” she asked as she crossed her arms and glared at him.  Niko's eyes widened.

“Apologize,” Tasha hissed at him, reaching up to slap lightly at his shoulder.

“My … mistake,” he muttered slowly, offering Myra a shallow bow of his head.

Myra gave a huff and looked to Twist expectantly.

“I just met him,” Twist said, suddenly frightened.

“Please,” Niko tried again, drawing her attention back. “I didn't mean to offend you,” he said, watching her carefully. “I've never met a … a clockwork person before.”

“I'm not a thing,” Myra said, her face somewhat softer now.

“Clearly,” Niko concurred with a nod.

“Especially not after how distraught these two were when they thought they'd lost you,” Tasha added with a nod to Twist and Jonas.  Myra looked to them and her expression softened again into a sweet smile. “Now, you wanted a trick,” Tasha said, scooting to the edge of her seat to get a little closer to Myra.

“Oh, yes please!”  Myra clapped her hands excitedly once again.

Tasha held her black-lace-gloved hand out to Myra—her fist closed with her fingers down.  She smiled to Myra and asked her to tap the back of her gloved hand.  Myra complied, reaching out one copper finger to tap the magician's hand.  Tasha turned her hand over in response and opened her fingers as a wide, full, and perfect pink rose unfolded on her palm.  Myra made a delighted tone and clapped again while Twist wondered not only where Tasha had gotten such a healthy-looking rose in the middle of a desert, but also why it wasn't crumpled from her grip on it.  Before he could ask, Tasha told Myra to blow on the petals.

Though Myra had no lungs and no need of breath, she made the motion.  The moment she did, the petals of the rose rippled against the imagined current, and then sprang up off of Tasha's palm.  In a blink, the rose unfolded itself again into the shape of a small pink bird with wide, round wings made of layered rose petals,  with two feet and a little beak made of the dark green fibers that had been the stem.  The bird landed lightly on Tasha's hand, opened a dew-drop of an eye, and uttered a sweet, tiny chirp when Tasha held it up to admire, sitting calmly on her hand.  She spared a smile to Myra before she tossed her hand, sending the bird into the air.

Its rose wings opened again and it flew in a tiny circle around Myra before it pulled in its wings, spun very quickly, and then exploded into a shower of petals over her head.  Myra squealed in pure delight as the petals fell around her too slowly, as if they were only made of thin tissue paper.

She clapped her hands and smiled at Tasha, as bright as the sun.  Twist realized that he and Jonas both had leaned closer to watch, and that their mouths were hanging open in shock.  They both pulled themselves back into more dignified positions.  Twist picked up one of the fallen petals that had landed on Myra's knee, and both his normal senses and his Sight agreed entirely: it was a thin piece of pink tissue paper and nothing more.

“Did you see how she did that?” Twist asked Jonas.

“Not exactly,” Jonas said, shaking his head. “That might have been real magic.”  Niko laughed quietly to himself, looking at Jonas and Twist with a dark, knowing grin.

“Do it again, do it again!” Myra pleaded, bouncing in her seat.

Tasha laughed at her innocent glee and shook her head. “Maybe later,” she said gently. “You wouldn't want me to use up all of my tricks in the first few miles, when we have such a long journey ahead of us.”

Myra appeared to give a sigh—despite her lack of breath—that seemed to cool her excess excitement more than it expressed disappointment.  She nodded, picking up a few of the fallen paper petals to toy with them. “You're really good,” she told Tasha. “I've seen a lot of magic, but that was something special.”

“Thank you,” Tasha said, giving her a shallow bow. “Niko makes most of my tricks these days, you know,” she added.  Niko shrugged when everyone's eyes turned to him.

“Do you really?” Myra asked him brightly, her past scorn totally forgotten.

“I've made a few,” Niko said impassively, though Twist noticed the hint of a smile now hiding in his sharp features.

After that, the conversation turned easily onto the topic of where Tasha and Niko had been preforming recently.  Myra wanted to know everything about all of the modern cities and countries that were new to her, and Tasha seemed to enjoy relating her experiences in places like Berlin, Marseille, Dublin, Athens, Rome, and Madrid.  Twist also listened with discreet interest as he silently added these details to his still rather empty view of the world.  Jonas joined in occasionally, asking if Tasha and Niko had visited a particular cafe, or what they thought of a specific famous place.

It wasn't long before the other travelers on the train grew tired of hiding their interest in them.  Whether it was the conversation itself, the random and unannounced magical feats, or simply the fact that Myra was a living piece of clockwork, Twist and his companions drew a considerable amount of attention.  Anyone who got too close, however, received a chilling and entirely unfriendly glare from Niko and soon retreated back to the ranks of the listeners or left the train car completely.

Once the sun began to set, and the hot desert air blowing through the open windows cooled into a true chill, the only people in the train car who were still speaking were Twist's companions.  Myra eventually wrapped her copper hands around Twist's arm and leaned her head on his shoulder as her form stilled into a quiet rest.  A hush of sleep and silence surrounded them in the tiny pool of gaslight by their window, as the conversation shifted to where each group was going from Cairo.  Jonas related that they were headed to Paris—without giving the reason—while Tasha said that she and Niko were planning to leave Egypt and make their way to Saint Petersburg by air.

“Actually,” Tasha said thoughtfully, “that reminds me.  We are going to be taking my friend's airship right over Constantinople.  You could take that new train service from there, directly to Paris.  What was it called again?  The eastern express...”

“The Orient Express,” Niko clarified.

“That was it,” Tasha said, snapping her fingers.

“Is that running now?” Jonas asked. “I thought it wasn't going to be finished for another few years.”

“Well, you know as well as I do how quickly our globe is shrinking,” Tasha said wistfully. “Everyone is in a rush to speed up travel.  It wasn't but a few months ago that the London papers were saying that you could get around the whole world in just eighty days, without taking even a single airship.”

“Yeah, if you didn't miss a connection anywhere,” Jonas scoffed. “No one would be daft enough to actually try a trip like that.”

“Still,” Tasha continued, “I have it on good authority that the train to Paris is running now.  One of my publicists just took the journey last month and couldn't stop raving about it.  He said it was the height of luxury.”

Jonas made a thoughtful tone, obviously considering the idea seriously. “And Constantinople is practically just across the Mediterranean from the mouth of the Nile.”

“Niko, do you think Hector would mind a short stop on the banks of the Black Sea?” Tasha asked him pleasantly.

“I don't think Hector would mind doing anything you asked him to,” Niko responded. “He's already asked you to marry him twice this year, and still has to beg to even spend a day with you.”

“Not all men are as lucky as you, my pet,” she said sweetly to him.  Niko looked away and rolled his eyes. “So, can we give you a ride?” she asked Jonas.

“What, just like that?” Jonas asked, smiling from behind his goggles.

“Why not?” Tasha asked. “You appeared just when I needed you, helped immensely, and I got away from the Cyphers with exactly what I wanted, in hand.  I'm feeling rather grateful.  Helping you on your way is really the least I can do.”

Jonas turned to Twist and pulled his goggles up to look in Twist's eyes. “Well?”

“I don't know if Constantinople is a city or country,” Twist said flatly. “I'm just glad that I knew that the Nile was a river in Egypt when you mentioned it.”

A laugh escaped Jonas before he could stop it.  He slipped his goggles back on over his eyes before he looked back to Tasha.  He then extended his hand as if he could see her clearly.

“Then, as the only one of us who knows what we're talking about,” he said brightly, “I accept your generous offer.”  Tasha took his handshake with a smile.

“Splendid.”