Steampunk Omnibus: A Galvanic Century Collection (44 page)

Aldora grabbed him by the bicep. "Father, no. It's... it's not him. It isn't human. It's something else. Something dangerous."

There was a crash below as something smashed into the side of the house. Lucian Fiske locked gazes with his daughter, his expression grim, then started down the stairs once more.

"It's dangerous. For mother."

Lucian hesitated, then regarded his wife. The woman was leaning against the banister, clinging to Aldora, body slumped.

"Very well." He took his wife's arm, supporting her across his shoulder. "Let's get her to my study. The doors are sturdy enough to withstand this impostor, and we can wait for Charles while we telegraph for help."

There was a tremendous crash as they reached the landing, as Grayson smashed bodily through the glass doors below. His jacket and trousers hung in tatters from his frame, dead puckered flesh and shining brass splattered with gore.

"Grayson?" Lucian's voice was barely a whisper.

Grayson's head tilted, birdlike, towards the trio. His firmly set mouth twisted into a rictus grin.

"We need to move." Aldora pulled on her mother's arm, and Lucian followed. "Take mother to the study. I'll meet you there."

"Are you sure--"

From the lower floor Grayson crouched low before springing forth, leaping halfway up the stairs, the hardwood splintering where he landed. Aldora pushed her parents down the hall towards the study, turning back as Grayson made a second great leap to land precariously on the second floor railing, knees bent, shoulders slack, like some terrible species of great ape.

"Fiske," he hissed, jaw clenched, eyes narrowed, corpse face mere inches from Aldora.

She didn't hesitate, body in motion before she even considered the tactics of the situation.

She dropped almost prone and kicked out with her leg, smashing her wedding boots into the cedar supports of the rail her dead brother crouched upon. The heels snapped off, but the supports were knocked out of place.

The entire rail shuddered and groaned.

Grayson attempted to leap off of the rail, but the shift in balance only served to collapse the railing more quickly. He tumbled back, falling to land flat on his back on the ground floor below with a tremendous crash.

Aldora watched, blood in her heart freezing as he started to rise.

She ran off down the hall after her parents.

***

Aldora almost crashed into James's large form as the engineer stepped out into the hall.

"What's going on?" he asked, closing the door behind him.

"James!" Aldora glanced behind, but Grayson hadn't made his way up the stairs yet. "Where are the girls?"

"Playing a game," James said, tilting his head to look past her down the hall. "They've hidden, and I'm to find them. At least, I think those are the rules."

"I pray they're well hidden," Aldora said.

"I believe I heard screaming?"

"There's a man, some sort of clockwork man, half flesh and half machine. He's attacked the guests, and is now after my parents."

"A clockwork man?" James's voice dropped low. "Do you mean a galvanic resurrection?"

"I don't know," Aldora said. "He looks like my deceased brother, only parts of his body have been replaced by machines, and he has copper piping all through his flesh--"

"It's something else, then. Something new. We've got to find the girls."

There was a sudden crash and the floor seemed to erupt at their feet. Aldora shoved James, knocking him back from the explosion of carpeting and debris.

Grayson crouched for a moment next to the hole he'd smashed up through, eyes seeming to glow, that terrible grin yet on his face.

He swung a brass fist towards Aldora. James pulled her away and took the strike square in the chest. The impact knocked him back into a mirror on the wall, shattering its glass and shredding the back of his waistcoat.

"Go!" James staggered forward towards the machine-man.

Aldora hesitated only a moment before running. James was a strong and powerful man, capable of holding his own against entire mobs of people, and Penny was canny enough to keep herself and Xin Yan hidden, but her parents -- they weren't used to this kind of danger. They were elderly, fragile, and without her to watch over them...

She did the best she could to ignore the sounds of James's struggles as she left him behind.

***

Aldora found her parents having just arrived in the study. Lucian had taken a pistol from a lock-box atop a bookcase, and her mother had nearly collapsed in one of the chairs, drawing in big gasps of rattling breath.

"Aldora," her father asked, "what is that thing?"

Aldora closed the study doors. "I don't know what it is, but that thing is not your son."

"It is, it is," Mary wailed. "My boy, my son, my Grayson. What have they done to him?"

"I don't know." Aldora dragged one of the bookcases towards the doors.

Her father moved to help. "It is him... or his body."

"He showed up downstairs," Mary explained. "For the wedding, you see. I thought he was a little stiff, but it's quite the flight from Paris."

"Mother..."

"I couldn't tell how wrong he was, not wrapped up in that coat. But you, Aldora. You could tell." Her mother paused. "No. You knew. You already knew he was dead."

"What?" her father asked, setting his end of the case down.

"She knew Grayson was dead, Lucian. Somehow Aldora knew."

"Help me get this into place." Aldora rocked the bookcase.

"How did you know?" her father asked. "We haven't heard from Grayson since he left to go to school in Paris. He's always kept in touch with you. Had you heard something?"

"Why wouldn't you tell us?"

"Is this really the time?" Aldora asked, doing her best to move the bookshelf on her own.

"Answer me, girl." her father frowned.

"Please?"

"He... he's dead. Alright? Can we leave it at that?"

"His body... it looked broken. Burnt," Mary said weakly.

Her father moved to her side, hand in hers, palm on her forehead. "Take it easy, my love."

"What happened to my boy?"

Aldora's shoulders slumped. They needed to know. They deserved to know, and she deserved the consequences. "I killed him."

Her mother's eyes widened. "What?"

Aldora turned from the door, face drawn. "Do you remember those air-pirates blockading London last year? That was Grayson. He was their leader. As soon as I'd heard their populist rhetoric, I knew it was him. I could tell."

"What are you saying?" her father said quietly.

"I had to stop him. It had to be me. The city was starving. And who could stop a Fiske but another Fiske?"

"You killed him?" Her mother closed her eyes. "Your brother?"

"I had to," Aldora said. "He was family. I killed him and left his body to crash to the ground with his airship. When no remains were discovered, I believed them destroyed on impact."

"You killed your brother," Lucian said. "My son. And you were planning to go on letting us believe him alive?"

"You didn't need to know." Aldora's voice gained an edge of frost. "You never cared what we were up to unless it endangers the Fiske name. Well, be proud of me, father, for I made bloody certain that none would learn of Grayson's shame."

Her mother sobbed quietly. Her father stared at the study's wooden floorboards.

The door was shoved open, bookcase knocked aside as James half-collapsed into the room. His waistcoat was bloodstained and torn in half down the middle of his back, and there was a shallow cut across his forehead. His breath came rapidly.

"James, is he--" Aldora said.

"He's on his way," James said, his solid form muscling the bookcase into place. "I knocked him through the solarium, but he won't be delayed for long. That table -- mahogany? Help me move it."

Aldora grabbed one end. "Are you hurt?"

"Nothing serious. He's tremendously strong, though."

"What is..." Lucian turned to the fireplace and began stoking the embers with an iron poker. "What has been done to my son?"

"It's not a galvanic resurrection," James said, grunting with effort. "Something else. Something new. A combination of biology and clockwork. Immensely strong, but quick. Nimble. Entirely impervious to pain and entirely lacking in weak points."

"How can we stop it." Aldora asked. It was much easier to call it "it".

"Massive structural trauma," James said. "The vital points -- heart, brain, spine -- are either vestigial or cased in brass. We'll need to literally rend it limb from limb."

"That's my
son
you're talking about!" Mary moaned.

"No it isn't. Not any more," James said. "I don't know what it is, but the flesh is necrotic, as inert as the brass which moves it."

"You're horrid."

James seemed taken aback. "I'm what?"

"Just see to the barricade," Lucian said, weariness in his voice. He sat next to his wife on the arm of her chair, poker loose in his hand.

There was a sudden slam as something threw itself against the door. James rushed to the bookcase they'd moved, bracing it with his body.

Aldora joined him immediately after. The frame shuddered with the force of the impact as whatever was out there, whatever was masquerading as Grayson Fiske, slammed itself against the barrier again. And again.

"Fiiiisssskkkeee," the voice came long and low. "You cannot hide forever, Fiske."

Lucian's grip on the poker tightened and his face paled. "How dare you use my son in such a manner."

"I dare many things, Mr. Fiske. You will see. After I kill your worthless daughter."

Aldora tensed, but the thundering against the door did not come again.

***

James slumped to sit on the ground, back braced against the bookcase.

"Aldora," her father said. "Kindly see to Mr. Wainwright's scalp wound. There's a roll of bandages in the cabinet."

"It's not bad," James said, half-heartedly waving her away. "A shallow laceration."

"It's rather broad," Aldora said, wrapping cool cloth around his head. "Stay still."

"Something animates it," James said. "Though what, I am unable to speculate."

"You said it wasn't Galvanics?" Lucian asked.

"Not one of the resurrected nor a Galvanic clockwork," James said. "It's too... coherent for the former, and I carry a device that would short out the latter." He pulled a bent and broken sprocket out of his waistcoat pocket. "It had no effect. I don't know what this is."

"It's my son," Lucian said, rubbing his wife's shoulders. "Or it was. Deliberately. Whoever set this upon us meant for it to injure in more than the physical."

"Maybe they thought you ignorant of his death?" James said. "An assassin, sent to get close before striking."

"Only Aldora knew," Lucian said.

"It didn't seem to expect that I'd unmask it," Aldora said quietly.

"Small favours," Lucian said.

There was a sudden slam against the door. Aldora and James rose, standing to brace against their barricade more firmly.

"Fiiiiiiske," the voice hissed. "Open the door, Fiske. Send your daughter out."

"What does she have to do with this?" Lucian demanded.

"She is the one I've come for."

"I do believe I'm far more comfortable in here," Aldora said. "I'm afraid I must decline your invitation."

There was a sudden small squeal, followed by an unladylike curse from beyond the door. "Your daughters will be sorry to hear that, Fiske. They so wish you to come out and play in their stead."

"Penelope?" Aldora asked.

"Don't come out!" the girl's voice was muffled. "It's a trap!"

"You will open up and take your due, Fiske, or I peel her like a grape."

"You monster!" Lucian said.

"Or maybe I start with the other girl? Tell me, Fiske, which should I kill now, which should I save for later?"

"Xin Yan?" James said, his usual monotone gaining an edge of panic. "He has Xin Yan."

"James--"

The engineer took the iron poker from Lucian's hand. A darkness had descended over his countenance."Get out of the way."

Aldora stepped away, hands flitting to her lips. "You cannot hope to stand against him."

James didn't falter as he pushed the table and bookcase out of the way. "He has my daughter. Close the door after me."

The big man gripped the poker tightly, and threw the door open.

***

sBlockade Smashed, London Freed

London, AP --
London was freed from the grip of terror last night when the massive blockading airships plaguing her skies were disabled by one Mr. Jack Fowler, 32. Fowler, an American expatriate, took it upon himself to save the city by flying his light aircraft up to the pirates and take the battle directly to them.