“Exactly what did happen with the Cube?” Alice said.
“I have no idea,” Gavin replied. He shrugged out of the last part of the harness and helped the automatons set the wings on the deck. “And I don’t have any means to find out, unless we want to go back and look for clues in al-Noor’s cave.”
“No, thank you,” Alice said with an exaggerated shudder. “Once was quite enough.”
“I’m also still trying to wrap my head around the fact that you’re my fiancee now.”
“Oh! I’d almost forgotten it myself. The attack quite drove it from my mind.” Alice turned pink, then gave a little laugh. “Where shall we publish the banns?”
“Not many newspapers hereabout read English.” Phipps had conjured up a bottle of sherry from somewhere and was pouring herself a glass. “Though I suppose that means you could say anything you like and no one would know.”
“‘Mr. Gavin Ennock, not of any nearby parish, thoroughly disreputable street musician and airman,’” Gavin said, “‘intends to marry the talented and beautiful Alice, Lady Michaels-’”
“‘Impoverished and social outcast baroness who rescued a handsome man with a golden voice from a tall tower,’” Alice put in, moving closer to him. “‘And quickly, please, because she desperately wishes to take this wildly handsome musician to her-’” She suddenly remembered that they weren’t alone and stopped.
Phipps raised her glass at them. “Don’t stop on my account.”
They were saved from further discussion when from the open hatchway clambered a tomcat made of brass. His green eyes glowed phosphor, and his segmented tail twitched high in the air as he picked his way across the deck, his claws making little sounds on the wood.
“Click!” Alice scurried over to pick the cat up. “I should have looked for you. Are you all right?”
Click remained aloof for a moment, annoyed that he had been ignored during what had clearly been a dreadful afternoon, but finally allowed Alice to rub his head.
“Don’t be upset,” she crooned, still stroking him. “We all had a difficult time of it.”
“You don’t pet my ears like that,” Gavin breezed.
“Fiance or not,” Alice sniffed with mock sternness, “one does not address a lady in such a manner, Mr. Ennock.”
Gavin bowed over the helm. “My deepest apologies, Lady Michaels. My heart rends in twain.”
“Do you even know what twain means?”
“I think he’s a travel writer who wrote a story about a frog.”
Phipps spoke up from her chair. “Pleasant as it is to eavesdrop on a lovers’ spat, we do need to determine where we’re going.” Then she quickly added, “Other than China. Because China has become somewhat problematic.”
Gavin rounded on her, startled. “What? Why?”
“Oh dear.” Alice continued to stroke Click, who made a purring noise like an engine that couldn’t quite get started. “We didn’t have time to explain what al-Noor told us.”
“Is this about the reward?” Gavin’s stomach was tense again. “I heard al-Noor shouting about one.”
“It is.” Alice explained, and every word dragged Gavin’s spirit lower. With China’s borders closed and an incredible reward for Alice’s capture offered, they had no chance of finding out if the Dragon Men could cure a clockworker, and without the cure, he would go mad and die before winter. The fury and fugue he had experienced in al-Noor’s lair was just the beginning. He could almost feel the plague burning inside him, consuming brain and body and leaving behind nothing but empty ashes.
Gavin clutched the helm with white fingers and tried to think, but his normally busy mind only ran in little circles. “What are we going to do?” he asked at last.
“I’ll tell you what we’re not going to do.” Phipps was consulting a large map she had unrolled across her lap. “We’re not going to panic. Got that? For one thing, al-Noor could have his facts wrong, or he could have been lying, or he could have been saying whatever came into his head. He’s a clockworker, after all. We need to find out more before we proceed, and the best place to start is going to be here.” She pointed to the map, though Gavin couldn’t read it from his vantage point. “Tehran. It’s south, so you’ll have to change course, Gavin, but it shouldn’t take more than two or three hours to get there.”
“Why Tehran?” Alice asked.
“It’s the nearest city of any size,” Phipps replied. “And Tehran has large petroleum reserves. China and the Empire have been quietly fighting over control of this region for several years now because of them. At the Third Ward, we called it the Great Game. Russia used to be a player in it, but once Catherine lost control of Ukraine, she didn’t have the resources to keep playing. At any rate, the petroleum reserves mean we can top off the paraffin oil kegs as well as pick up other supplies. Tehran also used to be a stop on the Silk Road back in the caravan days, so there’s likely information to be had about China. It may be al-Noor’s source of news, but we’ll see.”
“And if al-Noor was right?” Gavin said, hands still tight on the wheel. The Lady creaked as if in protest, and he forced himself to loosen his grip.
“No use inviting trouble.” Alice’s tone was light, but Gavin could read the tension in her voice. She put Click down, and he trotted to the gunwale where he reared up and put his paws on the edge so he could look over the side, as was his habit. “We’ll deal with that if it comes up.”
“I still want to know what happened to al-Noor and that squid.” Phipps rolled up the map and picked up her sherry glass. “My father liked to say that a loose end cracks like a whip.”
Gavin said nothing but adjusted the Lady’s course at Phipps’s direction, then glanced at the Impossible Cube, still lying dark and quiet on the deck as the ship turned south.
Chapter Five
A flock of airships hovered over Tehran, hungry as crows for the paraffin oil that poured from the city’s distilleries. The sharp smell of petroleum stung the air, even as high as the Lady was. High towers with golden minarets poked up like gold-tipped fingers all around the city, and the white stone buildings reflected harsh desert sunlight back into Alice’s eyes. The place looked strange. Foreign. When they arrived, she wouldn’t know the language or the customs or any of the rules. That made her anxious and set her on edge.
Knowing the rules made life possible for Alice. When you knew the rules, you knew what you were about, what to do, what to say. Everything was regular and straightforward as a clockwork automaton. True, not all situations were likeable. Regular wasn’t the same as pleasant. Regular trains got their passengers to their destinations on time, but they didn’t care if they ran over a cat on the tracks. Still, you knew the train was coming and had time to get yourself out of the way.
And then a year ago Gavin had blasted into Alice’s life, like a fox into a covey of quail. He broke every rule Alice knew. At the time, Gavin owned a bare eighteen years to Alice’s stately twenty-two. He was a fallen airman turned ragged street musician to her titled ladyship. He declared his love for her when she was already engaged to someone else. He should have disgusted her, horrified her, sent her fleeing to the safety of her then-fiance’s arms. Instead, she found Gavin excited her, exhilarated her.
Freed her.
Her wretched, treacherous heart hadn’t cared one bit who he was or where he had come from. Her heart didn’t mind being turned into an outlaw and flung from pillar to post. In fact, and rather surprisingly, she liked it. Good heavens, she loved it. Without him, she would this moment be living in London with a dreary, lifeless husband in a dreary, lifeless mansion, enduring a dreary, lifeless marriage. Instead, she was gadding about the world in an airship with a collection of mechanicals and a disreputable former lieutenant, wanted by both the British and Chinese empires. Chaos personified! She wouldn’t change a single, glorious thing.