The Odin Inheritance (The Pessarine Chronicles Book 1) Read online

  “It’s them bad Enhanced blokes, innit,” she said, garrulous. “Been makin’ a mess o’ trouble in London, Liverpool, Manchester and Bristol today. Burnin’ stuff, attackin’ folk, makin’ a right mess o’ things. Peelers are standin’ here hopeful they can keep Cambridge from bein’ next fer attack an’ ruin.” The girl leaned forward. “They’s afrighted, and no mistake,” she said confidentially. “They ain’t got them Gauge guns, see. If the evil Enhanced blokes come here to wreck us outta house an’ home, Peelers got nothin’ t’ stop ‘em.”

  Hypatia’s words about the Obscurati working to create chaos came back to me. Was the term ‘Obscurati’ another name for Enhanced, or just the steel-eyed fellows I’d encountered earlier? Clearly I needed more information. I reached back into my bag and pulled out another sixpence. “Can you run down and buy a Times for me? You can keep the change, and when you bring me the paper, I’ll give you this sixpence besides.”

  The girl nodded, took one of the coins and made a quick dash to the nearest newsboy, her pastries jostling about alarmingly, which explained their somewhat battered condition. She bought a Times, enclosed the change in her fist and dashed back, smiling.

  “Here you go, Miss,” she said, holding out the paper. I took it from her.

  “Thank you. What’s your name?”

  “I’m called Sadie Marsters, Miss,” she said with a genuine smile. “Thank you kindly, Miss. Me Pa’s lost his job due t’ this ruckus with the Enhanced folk. Lost his leg, an’ they gave him a new one, but... well, I’m tryin’ t’ help out, like.”

  I handed her the sixpence she’d been promised. Then I had an idea. “Do you know where Towson House is?”

  She looked at the coin and thought for a moment. “That’s where the posh college girls live, ain’t it?”

  “Yes. Go there, and ask for Cora Allerton. Tell her Lady Ariana sent you, and that I said she needs to find you a job helping out at Towson House. They can always use someone to run errands, and maybe that’ll help tide your family over until things improve.”

  She gripped the sixpence in her fist with the rest of her change, curtseyed and smiled. “Thank you, Miss. I’ll do that,” she said, and turning, the pastries bobbing excitedly in the tray as she walked, she disappeared into the crowd.

  I saw Mother making her way back to me with a station porter in tow. I quickly tucked the newspaper into my bookbag. Mother disapproved of ladies reading the newspaper, so I’d have to wait until I was alone to read it.

  “Come, Ariana,” she said, waving a dismissive hand at our luggage, “these fellows will take care of our things. We need to board the train.” I grabbed Hugo’s cage and followed.

  We made our way through the throngs of people to Platform Seven, where the train for York sat while people climbed aboard. Police officers stood there with their billy-clubs out and their eyes missing nothing. Mother blazed a trail to the first class cars. Armed with knowledge, however sparse, of the current troubles with the Enhanced and remembering with a great deal of accuracy my own very recent encounter with them, I scrutinized every person we passed, attempting to detect any trace of Enhancement or malice. I saw none, and Mother made it clear she thought my overzealous peering about to be very tiresome. In no time, we had boarded the train. Wary of attack, I followed her into our first class cabin. I placed Hugo and his cage on the seat, waited while Mother removed her coat, and hung hers with my own.

  It was a standard sort of cabin, like the many others Mother and I had shared over the years. It had dark wood paneling on the walls, red velvet bench seats stuffed with horsehair, shelves above the seats for our luggage, and a wide window with a little door in the middle of it to view the world as it slid by. I put my bookbag and Mother’s small valise on the shelf above my head and sat. Hugo shook himself and trilled a bit, then curled up and closed his eyes to sleep again.

  Mother sat across from me, calmly looking in her reticule for our tickets. I, in contrast, was nervous as a cat. I felt the lurch of the train pulling out of the station and nearly jumped up from my seat. The steam whistle blew a strident note, nearly giving me an apoplexy, and we were off. As the train’s speed increased, the cabin swayed and moved with the power of the engine and the unevenness of the tracks. I looked into the corridor beside the cabin, watching the people go by. I stiffened when the short, grey-haired conductor entered, anticipating an attack. His blue uniform with its brass buttons covered his protruding belly and wide girth like a tent, and he carried a small box with one open end that I knew all too well: a Gauge box.

  “Begging your pardon, ladies,” the conductor said, “but I’m afraid I’ll need to check you both for Enhancements before I see your tickets.”

  Mother looked aghast. She knew as well as I did what regard the Enhanced held in England. Someone like a train conductor asking someone of her rank to prove she had no Enhancements was simply unthinkable. I winced, knowing what would be said next by my very rank-conscious parent.

  “I am the Duchess of Albemarle,” she said with asperity, “and we’re seated in first class. Surely you don’t suppose my daughter and I are Enhanced. Even if we were, we certainly don’t behave like those London ruffians in Seven Dials.” She sniffed. “I took the train here just a couple hours or so ago, and I wasn’t required to submit to a Gauge test then.”

  The conductor knuckled his head in imitation of lifting his cap. “My apologies, Your Grace,” he said, “that is as may be, but we just got word that all the passengers need to be checked for Enhancements. The Head Conductor received a telephone call a minute or two before the train pulled out that there’s a fear the rascals will start targeting the railways. Been a bit of a messy day in some places, if you know what I mean. Home Office wants to keep track of Enhanced people’s comings and goings.”

  Mother looked the conductor up and down in her best withering, high-society glance. “And what if we refuse?”

  “Begging your pardon, but we’ll stop the train and put you and your luggage out on the side of the track.”

  “Well, I never!” Mother said.

  The conductor nodded. “Yes, your Grace. I have no doubt of that,” he said with a droll look of his own.

  “Sir,” I asked, before my outraged Mother could respond, “what if we were Enhanced? Would you put us off the train then?”

  “No, miss,” he said. “I’d just record that you were on the train, and make a note of your destination. I’d only put you off if you started a ruckus.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Mind you, you’d be dealing with the police once you got off the train in York, just to be sure you’re law-abiding citizens.”

  So if there are Enhanced fellows on the train, I’m still on my own. I put out my hand. “I’m ready to be tested, sir,” I said.

  Mother spluttered in shock across from me, but the conductor’s face took on a grateful look. “Thank you, miss,” he said, turning the box in my direction. “Just place your hand inside here – won’t take a moment.”

  I did so, endured the nausea-inducing process in stoic silence, and removed my hand when the device finished. “No Enhancements,” he noted, looking at the reading.

  “Of course not,” Mother said in a huff. “What do you take us for?”

  The conductor turned the open end of the box to Mother. “If you will, your Grace,” he said, “it will take just a few moments. Then I can punch your tickets and be on my way.”

  Mother looked at me, and I motioned that she should comply with the conductor’s request. She frowned and placed her hand in the box, looking none too pleased to do so.

  I watched in fascination as the Gauge read my mother. Her face paled and she closed her eyes, swallowing a few times as the nausea of the the test moved through her. I swallowed in convulsive sympathy. The test ended, and Mother pulled her hand from the box as if she’d been burned.

  “No Enhancements for you either,” the conductor said. “Thank you for your cooperation.” He tucked the Gauge box up near his armpit and pulled h
is hole-punch from its holder on his belt. “Now, Your Grace, if I could see your tickets?”

  Mother shot me a look as she handed over the tickets to the man, annoyance and disapproval of him and what she’d been forced to do coming off her in waves. He punched the tickets, handed them back, and beat a hasty retreat, shutting the door to the cabin as he left. I locked it, still nervous about an attack. Mother furrowed her brow in confusion.

  “You seem to be very security-minded,” she commented, settling into the seat and working to pull her dignity back in place. “Though I think those Enhanced chaps would find a locked door easy enough to get through if the newspaper accounts are accurate.”

  “You’ve been reading the paper?” I asked, shocked.

  “Of course not,” she said. “Your father keeps me informed.” She sniffed dismissively. “Clearly the government is more worried about those awful people than I’d thought. Imagine that conductor suggesting we’re Enhanced. The cheek!”

  If only she knew the half of it, I thought grimly, and flashed back to my encounter with Dennis and Abe in Dr. Sanburne’s office.

  “I’ve heard about thefts on trains,” I said in explanation of my locking the door. “True or not, it seems foolish not to take precautions.”

  Mother considered this. “I see your point,” she said. “Good thinking.” She reached up and removed her fascinator, setting it on the seat beside her, then began removing her gloves. I’d forgotten to put mine on before we left. I realized I’d left them on my bed back at Towson House and Mother hadn’t said a word. That was odd, I thought, and with a mental sigh added that to the growing list of oddities I’d dealt with in the past few days.

  I turned my attention to the window and watched the countryside go by while I waited for Mother to reveal our specific destination, hoping the scenery would ease my mind. It didn’t. I kept considering what our escape options were if someone attacked us. I noted the stop-cord along the top of the train window but knew it would probably take too much time for the train to stop to do us any good. Jumping out the little door while the train speeded along was another tricky possibility, but too likely to result in injuries. I also wasn’t sure we could move our corsetted torsos enough to get out the door in the first place. Hand-to-hand combat within the cabin looked to be the only defense available, if we came under attack.

  If only I knew more about why the attacks against me had taken place. What was the connection between the disturbances by the Enhanced and the attempts to abduct me? Frustrated, all I wanted to do was pace the cabin and have a good think, but I couldn’t due to its small size and Mother’s presence. It took every ounce of my control to sit quietly and keep my hands clasped in my lap as the daughter of a duke should.

  Mother cleared her throat, dignity now fully restored. “My goodness, Ariana,” she said. “You look ready to pounce or explode. Look at me, take a deep breath and open your fists before you hurt yourself.” I did as instructed but felt no better. My hands tingled as the blood returned to them.

  “I was unaware you were so attached to Cambridge, my dear. You’re positively vibrating with agitation. I told you I spoke to your professors. They’ll send work for you if we’re gone for longer than I anticipated.”

  I leaned back in the seat, amazed. “Thank you, Mother,“ I said, truly grateful.

  Mother rolled her eyes. “Honestly, Ariana. You’re my only daughter. Do you really think I don’t know how keen you are to pass the... what’s it called... the Tripos exam?” She looked down and dusted something off her skirts. “It’s important to get it done this June, of course, so I made sure your professors knew to send you exercises,” she waved a dismissive hand, “or whatever it is they have you do.”

  I knew why I thought it important to be done with the Tripos in June, but I didn’t understand why Mother did. “Oh?” I prompted.

  “Once you finish at Towson, you’ll finally settle in to your proper role in life, and leave mathematics and science behind, of course. You certainly can’t do anything with your Cambridge education.” She sighed. “It’s not part of your future, and you’ve dilly-dallied long enough.”

  I stifled my desire to tell Mother I intended to avoid marriage and be a professional aeronaut, knowing it would do no good. “What is there in Scotland that figures so prominently in my future?” I asked, resigned. “Some duke or earl you wish me to meet?”

  “No, child. We’re headed to Aberdeenshire to visit your Great Aunt Miranda,” Mother said.

  “I thought she was in France,” I said, surprised. I almost mentioned that I’d just seen her, but wisely stopped myself. I didn’t want to explain to Mother why I’d seen her.

  “She’s on her way back. We’re to meet her at Brentwood Close.” My mother’s face creased with a puzzled look. “She telephoned and told me in no uncertain terms I was to retrieve you from Cambridge and get you to Brentwood Close with all possible speed.” She shook her head ruefully. “I couldn’t get a word in to ask why, or how she was, or anything. She made me swear to get you out and was oddly forceful about it. She told your father the same thing – well, she’s a force of nature, isn’t she? If she wants you to do something, you do it.”

  “That’s true enough,” I agreed.

  “You see your aunt occasionally on weekends, do you not? Do you know why she’d be so insistent to get you out of Cambridge?”

  I immediately thought of Laufeson and our encounter in the library, which Aunt Miranda knew about. She didn’t know about the attack on the road or the altercation at Dr. Sanburne’s, however. I didn’t want to tell Mother about any of that, or our brief trip to Brentwood Close would become a permanent trip home.

  “No,” I said.

  “We’ll be meeting a friend along the way, and she made the necessary arrangements to get us there as quickly as possible.”

  “So we’ll be transferring to an airship when we get off this train?” I asked hopefully. It would be the fastest method, and only a few firms offered the service, as I was in a good position to know.

  Mother looked horrified. “Heavens no, child. We’ll travel by train, as any civilized person does. Airships may be the vogue, and I know you greatly favor them, but until Queen Alexa makes use of one, I’ll stick to trains.”

  Queen Alexa had ascended the throne in 1870 as a young woman, inheriting from her father, Arthur II, who had died at the age of sixty-two after a forty year reign. Alexa was intelligent, the mother of two daughters, hard-working and beloved, but she, and her husband the Prince-Consort William, didn’t readily embrace new technologies, following in the footsteps of the prior Tudor monarchs who had ruled England since 1485. An unfortunate, bloody incident with a flying clockwork insect during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I had put her descendants off rapid advancement of machine technology. The Empire’s distrust of the Enhanced was merely one facet of that mechanophobia.

  In contrast, Queen Alexa’s second cousin, Victoria, actively encouraged new machines and methods, believing rivals would overtake Great Britain unless technological advancement increased ten-fold. Her husband Alfred, a German, heartily agreed and used his considerable fortune to promote new ideas and help inventors. I knew my father worried the Empire would fall behind in power and influence if he didn’t work with Parliament and the Prime Minister to overcome Queen Alexa’s reluctance to accept new ideas and advancements. At the moment, Great Britain ‘strode the world’ in colonies and territories, but through new devices and technology France, Germany and the United States were rapidly becoming influential world powers.

  Therefore, Mother’s opinion about travel in airships was hardly a surprise, focused as she was on rank and Queen Alexa’s opinions.

  “Now,” Mother said, fixing her gaze on Hugo’s cage, “why don’t you tell me about how you came by that ridiculous raven, and why Mrs. Gildersleeve allows it in the house.”

  There was a knock at the door of our cabin. I tensed, then followed Mother’s gaze to see who stood in the hallway through
the window.

  “Ah! Lady Sato!” she said and rose to let her in. I rose in welcome as was appropriate and curtseyed, amazed and happy to see the benefactress of Towson House.

  Lady Sato moved into the cabin with an almost superhuman grace, wearing the most beautiful pale gold brocade dress I’d ever seen in the most up-to-date design shown in the lady’s magazines Melisande favored. The fabric of the dress paid appropriate homage to its owner’s Japanese heritage. Designs swirled in the weave of the fabric, reminding me of birds in flight swarming in warm sunshine. She was shorter than I was by three inches, her jet black hair pulled up on her head in the latest hairstyle, topped by a fascinator that matched her dress in elegant simplicity. Her eyes wavered between gold and brown, and she saw everything. There was wisdom in her gaze to depths I couldn’t possibly fathom, but it was more than that. Somehow, I knew she saw what had gone before, what was happening now as a result of that past, and the future that was to come because of both with a clarity that literally took my breath away.

  I’d met Lady Sato several times at Towson House and a couple times at home, since she was a friend of my mother’s. I liked her very much though her seeming to understand everything with a glance made some people uncomfortable. Hugo looked up and trilled in welcome, and Lady Sato dipped her head slightly to the bird in response. I looked from Hugo to Lady Sato and back in surprise. Hugo knows this woman? Does that mean she knows Andrew?

  Hugo fluffed his feathers and brought a foot up to scratch his neck briefly, for all the world like a normal bird. Then he turned his attention to the page from Times on the bottom of his cage again.

  Mother hugged Lady Sato, making a demonstration of affection I rarely saw at home. Lady Sato returned the embrace with equal affection. Lady Sato then moved to me and hugged me with equal warmth. I wondered if Lady Sato knew how to fight, in case we came under attack.

  That thought made me stop. My God, I mused, before this week I’d had no reason to consider the combative capabilities of my companions. What sort of person am I becoming? Damn and blast! Will I be worrying about ambushes from now on, in every situation?