Turnkey (The Gaslight Volumes of Will Pocket Book 1) (84 page)

“Stay back!” the
sergeant ordered her. “Don’t move!”

“No! You heartless
bastards, no!”

“I said, don’t
move!”

“He was a good
man! You took the life of a good man!”

Iago started
crying and I heard approaching footsteps.

“Get that child
back here!” one of the Magnates yelled.

“Iago, no!” Alexia
shrieked.

I felt small
fingers poking against my cheeks. The kid was weeping at my side, frantically
tapping against my face in hopes that I would respond.

“You get up now!”
he cried. “Mistah Pockeh, you’re not a bad guy! We hafta kill the bad guys!”

I would not let
myself respond, and it ate away at me.

“You will rot
forever for what you’ve done!” Alexia screamed through her tears. “Forever!”

Iago kept poking
me, and then suddenly, he stopped.

“Mistah Pockeh?”
he whispered into my ear. “Bad guys don’t win. So you must be pretending,
right?”

I clenched my jaw
and tried to keep calm.

“Please, Ig,”
I
thought,
“don’t ruin this.”

“Why are you
pretending to be dead?” he whispered. “You need to stand up an’ live.”

Someone marched up
and pulled him away. The boy started screaming. There was a quick blast, more
screaming from the scene, and some sort of raucous scuffle unfolded.

Against my own
good judgment, I looked once again, careful not to open my eyes too wide.

In the confusion,
Eddie had seized a rifle and shot three of the soldiers. A line of blood down
his thigh told me that one of them had gotten a shot in as well. As for the
remaining two, they were struggling for control of their own weapons, as Gren
and Alexia were yanking viciously at their barrels. Young Iago, in his childish
innocence, was hopping around and cheering.

Eddie charged the
two survivors, who eventually surrendered their firearms and slipped into a
hurried retreat. Eddie galloped after them, then stopped and shouted a song of
victory.

But some songs end
quickly.

From behind this
scene, out of a pool of blood, the fatally-wounded commander struggled upward,
still clutching his weapon. The only one who noticed was Iago, who made a
taunting face at the Magnate. Enraged, the soldier quickly aimed upon Eddie’s
back, and the lantern boy screamed.

“Eddie!” Gren
shouted, spinning his head around. “Get dow—”

The sky shook with
a loud pop.

It was a quick
moment, and within a blink of an eye, finger struck trigger, gunpowder struck
fire, and a bullet struck flesh.

The barrier
between life and death is pathetically slim.

A man moaned once
more, breathed his last, and fell dead.

But that man was
not Eddie.

They all stood
there, glued to the spot, eyes wide and mouths silent, even little Iago, as the
Magnate dribbled his essence into the cracks between the cobblestone.

A man with a
smoking pistol walked to them without announcement. He spoke no word and he
made no face. Silently, he buried the gun back into the tattered overcoat from
which it came. Sweat and dirt and maybe tears matted his face, just as blood
matted his body.

Will Pocket died
that night in London Town. But another took up his flesh and started anew. He
had filled the form and used those pale fingers to shoot a man dead.

This is the Pocket
I was. This is the Pocket I have become.

I remember
watching the street beyond my feet and staring into the cobblestone cracks as
the blood trickled a little stream. I remember looking up and catching Miss
Alexia’s eyes. They bore into me, twin circles of colorful slush, a blend of
confusion, gratitude, wonder, and fear. I nodded solemnly to Alexia, as if
acknowledging my actions, and she seemed to understand. She mouthed “thank you”
and I turned away.

“I have to go to
the church now,” I said, walking slowly past them. “It’s almost morning.”

They were
dumbfounded, and just parted as I passed, saying nothing. They just let me go.

Well, most of
them.

I stopped suddenly
as I felt something clutch onto my leg. Glancing down, I wasn’t surprised to
find Iago hanging on, scowling at me.

“What do you
want?” I said, tired, empty, and dull. “I shot the bad guy.”

He nodded and let
go. His obstruction seemed to return the life to those who were with him, and
they all started speaking over each other.

“M-Mister Pocket!”
Alexia stuttered.

“Hey, not so
fast!” Gren called out, scooping his confiscated Half-Luck from the ground.

“Yeah!” Eddie
followed. “Can’t just save a chump’s life and take off!”

“I am,” I replied.
“And it’s my life now.”

“Uh…what?” Eddie
blinked, dropping his jaw.

I kept walking. “I
shot a man. I took a life, and in doing so, I gave up part of my own. The life
of yours I saved I’m claiming as reimbursement.”

Eddie laughed. He
must’ve thought I was joking.

“So you get to keep
on living,” I continued, “but you’re gunna keep yourself a little farther away
from the Reaper from now on, understood? I’d be insulted if you went and lost
what I’ve earned here.”

I paused and
glanced back at Eddie. He was smirking at me.

“Hmph,” he nodded,
warmly. “I didn’t think you could be so stubborn.”

“Get that leg
cleaned up, all right?”

“Just got nicked.”

“Good.” I inhaled,
cleared my throat, and raised my voice. “Make sure they get out of here in one
piece, all right, B?”

“Yeah, yeah,” came
a voice from above.

My companions
looked at the sky, and despite the quite audible sounds produced from the steam
engines on high, they only just then seemed to notice the ship that had been
observing our grizzly little scene from above. It was swimming in a little
circle around us. Madame B leaned out of a back window while Quill waved from
the cockpit.

“Enjoy the show
from up there?” I asked.

“Yup,” B shouted
down. “A little dramatic and a little gory, but not bad. If there had only been
some damn weapons mounted to this flying junkball—”

“Don’t worry about
it. Just hurry up and land.”

“I don’t take your
orders!” she sassed.

I sighed. But she
complied.

Moments later, the
small ship descended to an empty city intersection that was just wide enough to
permit a landing, and the dwellers of the tea house climbed aboard. Eddie tried
desperately to argue his way off of it, but he was wounded, and we all knew it
would only hinder us in a fight.

“Here, Iago,”
Alexia softly said, lifting the child into the machine. “Shall we take a little
ride?”

He nodded. The boy
was shaking a little, but he was also putting on a brave front. So was the tea
lady, I suspected. I wanted to say something to them, but I had no words. Eddie
took up my slack, though, draping his arms around them with a reassuring smile.
And I think I saw Alexia blush.

I smiled and
turned to Madame B, who was out of her ship, stretching her legs, and
conversing with Gren.

“So,” she smiled,
“would you boys like a ride or—”

“What happened?” I
interrupted. “Did you get to the abbey?”

She sighed,
tucking the smile away. “There were complications.”

“Complications,
what does that mean?”

“It’s okay,” Gren
said to me. “We’re close now. Damn close. We can get to Dolly before daybreak.”

“Exactly,” B
agreed.

But I wasn’t satisfied,
and after taking a dry, drawn-out breath, I spoke.

“Madame, can I
speak with you in private for a moment?”

“Oh!” Gren said.
“So I’m not interesting enough to—”

“Not now, Gren.
Madame?”

She seemed
surprised. “Sure,” B replied. “Lead the way.”

I marched her
around the corner and leaned impatiently against a brick wall as she stretched
her arms.

“All right, bard,”
she said. “Start talking. Make it fast, though. A ship parked in the street’s
going to attract us some—”

“Did you or did
you not get to that cathedral?”

She narrowed her
eyes at me. “Yes, Pocket. We did.”

“Then where’s
Dolly? Why didn’t you pick her up?”

“We tried. Made a
sweep over the roof, didn’t see her. Would’ve searched further, but we couldn’t
land.”

“Why not?”

“Complications.”

“You keep saying
that! Specifics, B!”

“Look, don’t wor—”

“To Hell with your
‘don’t worry!’ I didn’t bring you here to discuss my bloody emotional state! I
want answers! Cold, simple answers! So you tell me what happened and you tell
me
now!
”

“Excuse me! I
don’t know who you think you’re speaking to—”

“I’m speaking to
the woman who had better start talking fast!”

“Or else
what?
”
she snarled, reaching for yet another knife in her seemingly-endless
collection. In anger, I countered, reaching for the pistol Gren loaned me, and
we were soon at a standoff, her blade to my chest and my barrel to her throat.
We held the tableau for a minute before B broke the silence.

“This how you
conduct yourself around a lady?”

“If I have to,” I
muttered. “Start talking.”

She sighed and
dropped the knife. “You always have to be so dramatic, don’t you? Fine. We were
spotted before we could land, all right?”

“Spotted?”
“By a government ship.”

“Are you sure?”

“Trust me.”

“So what? You just
turned and ran off?!?”

She stamped her
foot at me. “What would you have had us do, Pocket? Risk killing ourselves in
the process of retrieving her?”

“Yes!” I bellowed.
“If you had a chance to get in there and find her, nay,
save
her, then I
say damn the risks! Instead, you ran! You.
Ran.
B! I would think that if
Dolly’s at stake, then—”

“Then I don’t
think leading the King’s forces right to her would be the best idea, now would
it?!?”

I looked away from
her and just scowled.

“I know how you’re
feeling, you damned idiot!” B continued. “Do you think any of us,
any
of
us, would be out here tonight if we didn’t?!? You think you’re the only head on
the chopping block?!? Like it or not, you aren’t in this alone anymore, and you
have to deal with things a little more carefully! If not, you’re just going to
end up wearing a hell of a lot more of that red slop. You understand?”

I sighed and
looked again at my toes. “Yeah. Yeah, I understand.”

Smack! The girl
arched up on her tiptoes and slapped something flat against my forehead with
her palm. She slid her palm away, and that flat little something remained, a
rectangle stuck in place by the sweat of my skin. I peeled it off, but didn’t
look at it.

“Tarot, eh?” I
whispered. I tucked it away in my coat with all the other pieces of my travels.
“Have I started looking like one of your victims, lady?”

B turned her back
to me. “You’re damn close. Keep acting like an ass and watch. You’ll end up
just as dead.”

The card felt like
it was burning in my pocket.

“Well, I’ll hang
onto it then,” I said. “In the end, I’d rather have a card of yours on my brow
than a set of pennies on my eyes.”

The lady shook her
head. “So bloody dramatic,” she griped, again facing me. “Come on. We need to
get going.”

I took in a little
more air to stall the future a moment more.

“Right,” I
ultimately said.

“I know I’m right.
Go on. Move those socks.”

We rejoined the
others, and my friends took their places within the flying machine.

“So,” B smiled,
leaning out of the open hatch, “would you like a ride to the cathedral?”

I was tempted, but
politely declined.

“There’s enough
time to get there on foot. You need to get them out of the city right away. I’m
not risking any more captures.”

“Are you sure?
What happened to ‘damn the risks?’”

I shrugged. “Don’t
remember saying that. You probably overheard some more stubborn ass. Besides, I
don’t think the Doll would forgive me if I traded you for her.”

Madame B stretched
over and punched me softly in the arm. “You go get your girl, all right?”

“I will.”

“Please be
careful, sensei!” Quill shouted from inside.

“I promise.”

“Damn right, you
promise!” B added, sliding back inside the craft.

The door began to
shut when I stuck my head in for one last question.

“Tell me, Miss B,”
I said, “what exactly is the captain hoping to accomplish when the sun rises?”

“Oh, you’ll see,”
the pirate queen responded, shooing me out. “You’ll see.”

Another round of
goodbyes, another ship full of faces to float away into the clouds. The sky was
lit with an early blue glow, but the moon still remained, however slightly.

“You ready for
this?” Gren asked, the last one remaining at my side.

“Ready as ever.”

“Still got some
fire in that pistol?”

“A little. Your
rifle?”

“A little.”

Gren then jogged
to the abandoned carriage and brought back that damn, bludgeon-hungry
cannonball.

He handed me it and
I clutched the sling.

“For insurance,”
he said, “or maybe luck.”

I moved my wrist
and spun the heavy object around in a small loop.

“Let’s go, Gren.”

The Bluebird
Abbey.

It was just over a
block away, and as we arrived in the empty courtyard, I was happy to find that
the dead soldier with the split throat was still lying in the open doorway.

“Guess that means
reinforcements haven’t arrived,” I breathed.

“Why?” Gren asked.

“Well, I imagine
that the King’s militia would’ve collected their dead.”

“Don’t give them
too much credit, Pocket.”