The early morning sun had risen high enough to make the streets start steaming, frost melting away as the air temperature rose with each moment. This mist caused more than one collision as people began to emerge from their houses.
Elizabeth used her aura vision to help her navigate the swirling water vapour, each person showing up as a haze of colour. This meant that she wove through the thickening London crowds as gracefully as a seamstress’ needle through fine fabric.
At one crossing point near Westminster Bridge Station, a small group of badly dressed urchins mobbed her, all of them trying to get hold of Thirrin. In desperation, the little dragon raised his head and blew a thin stream of purple fire at the children, who scattered with delighted shrieks.
“I say, young lady, what on earth do you have on your shoulder? It looks like an animal of some sort.” An elderly gentleman took his spectacles off and polished them with a soft cloth, before putting them back on and peering at Thirrin.
“I make watches and clockwork toys, Sir. This is one of my prototypes.” She replied.
“I’d go careful with it then; the Council for Correct & Proper Behaviour may think it contravenes the Toy Animal Act if it can spit fire. They may even decide to classify it as a weapon, which as a young lady, you should not be carrying.” He tipped his hat to her as the crossing guard stopped the flow of traffic. “Just a friendly piece of advice.” He strode away against the flow of pedestrians.
Elizabeth bobbed a small curtsey in return and crossed the road, ignoring the heaving mass of Steam Powered Carriages and Carts that sat on the other side of the Crossing Guard’s baton.
“Council for Correct & Proper Behaviour?” Thirrin sounded puzzled. “Who in their right mind would vote for something like that?”
Elizabeth smiled and replied with her mind. “You’re assuming that this version of England is a democracy, with elected Members of Parliament; the way it is in Arkingvale. But it isn’t. In this world, Charles the First won against Cromwell and it’s the Queen who makes the laws; with her advisors of course.”
Thirrin blinked and let out a tiny puff of smoke, “Sounds very… ordered.”
“It is. The Queen determined early in her reign that Society required the firm hand of a woman to prosper.” Elizabeth said, “She was proved right enough times that Parliament bowed to her will.”
“I see why you like it here,” Thirrin said, “In Arkingvale the queen is little more than a pretty statue at State Functions; she doesn’t even sign laws anymore.”
Elizabeth hid her nod of agreement as a nod of greeting to a cabbie that she recognised. “Women are respected here. The Queen maintains Parliament as an advisory body and there are more female members of parliament than male.”
Thirrin lapsed into a thoughtful silence as they crossed another junction. The traffic here was thinner and had fewer steam powered vehicles. Elegant carriages drawn by matched horses moved at a sedate pace, carrying brightly clad ladies and their escorts.
The air was cleaner and the smell of flowers and growing things predominated, although Thirrin could still detect a whiff of Gas from the unlit lamps and a touch of sewage from the river, “I see that they still haven’t fixed the sewers.”
Crossing Bridge Street, they entered New Palace Yard and Thirrin realised why Elizabeth had taken such trouble with her outfit. The pathways thronged with the well dressed and wealthy. Glowing silks and detailed embroidery fought with lustrous velvet and snowy linen.
Elizabeth looked smartly drab in comparison, despite the ornate tooling on her leathers, the blinding whiteness of her blouse and the silver embroidery on her bronze skirt. She nodded greetings to those of her customers that deigned to notice her, doffed her top hat to various notables and wove her way carefully through the crowd to the cloister that ran alongside the clock tower and palace.
“Stay as quiet and still as possible when we go inside. I do not need any distractions while I climb to the Workings Chamber.” Elizabeth told him rummaging through the keys on her chatelaine. She selected a small black iron key and opened a black stained oak door in the base of the tower.
“Fair enough.” Thirrin hunched himself closer to her shoulder as she ducked through the little door.
Inside, a steep staircase led up through the ceiling. Elizabeth locked the door from the inside and pulled on two strings hidden in the decoration of her skirt’s waistband. The skirt hoisted up from the hemline, exposing her boots. She pulled the cord until her skirt hung just above her knees in soft swags.
“I see why you wore trousers now. Wouldn’t it be easier to just wear them without the skirt?” Thirrin murmured in her mind.
“Our society here isn’t as enlightened as Earth Nexus, Thirrin.” She tied the cords around her waist to hold the skirt in place; the act of tightening the knot made the front of the skirt hang a little higher than the back.
Thirrin sat up, “I need to stretch my wings. Am I likely to be seen in here?”
Elizabeth shook her head. “Only four people have the key. Myself, the Lady Chamberlain, The Speaker of the House and the Chief Groundsman. We’ll hear anyone coming long before they see you.”
“Or I could just go invisible,” He said, stretching out his wings and pushing himself off her shoulder strongly enough to make her stumble.
“True. Just don’t distract me.” She began to climb the stairs, one hand helping catching hold of the rope strung on the wall to act as a bannister. Thirrin flew behind and just above her, purring for the joy of using his wings.
They paused on each landing, Elizabeth putting her bag down for a few moments to catch her breath before taking the next flight.
Three flights up, Thirrin landed on the tool bag and lifted it, “I’ll carry this for you. That way you have both hands to climb.”
Elizabeth smiled. “Thank you. I forgot how helpful it can be to have a flying companion.”
“You shouldn’t have left me behind then," Thirrin sounded self-satisfied.
“I didn’t have a choice.” She started climbing again. “Both the Council and the league only wanted me for my ability to have children. I wouldn’t have been able to live a normal life.”
“And here I thought that you ran away because you didn’t couldn’t bring your family back,” Thirrin remarked.
She glared at him. “I thought I told you not mention that.”
“You said not to call you Illi,” Thirrin flew past her head, the bottom of the tool bag brushing the top of her hat.
After climbing the stairs for half an hour, they emerged into a room filled with colour and light. Thirrin let out a squeak of surprise that ended in a small flame and puff of smoke.
“Welcome to the Clock Room.” Elizabeth
Thirrin dropped the tool bag on the bare wooden floor and flew to the clock face where a single pane of clear glass allowed him to look out over London’s bustling streets, “It’s amazing. And you have to come up here regularly?”
Elizabeth retrieved her tools. “Once a month. Yes, it’s wonderful. Can you see now why I don’t want to go back to Arkingvale?”
“You would lose so much freedom,” Thirrin said, settling on the ledge below the clear pane, “But if I understand what Benjamin and Madam Gillee were talking about, the situation in Arkingvale threatens this world as well.”
She strode over to a large metal box. “Did you know that before I took over here, the clock lost more than three minutes a day because the clockwork wasn’t up to scratch.” Opening the box, Elizabeth attached a copper wire to a silvery peg sticking out of a bank of what looked like wooden drawers. Then she plugged the other end of the wire into a small, flat, brass-bound wooden box that she took out of her bag and lifted the lid.
Thirrin turned to look at her and his eyes narrowed, “You’ve been to Zonlasin. That’s a computer. I can smell the workings.”
Elizabeth shrugged and pointed up at the huge copper, brass and iron clockwork above them. “That deals with the daily work of marking the time and setting Big Ben ringing at the right moment. The Techs on Zonlasin B gave me a way of combining it with the efficiency of quartz and making sure it was on time.”
“That’s cheating. You created something that no one else on this world can fix,” He huffed a little flame in her direction.
“It means I can maintain my shop and lifestyle. And it gives me a permanent home.” She tapped out something, frowned and tapped something else. Then she smiled, closed the box and disconnected it from the peg.
“That’s against Hall Walker rules. Lord Arkingham…” Thirrin began.
“I don’t care what Aderyn Arkingham thinks. This is my life. Not his.” She snapped back as she put her equipment away. “He almost ruined his granddaughter’s life to save Earth Nexus. I am not ruining mine in any way, shape or form.”
“What happens if you die? Then all those who are dependent on you will suffer,” The little dragon cocked his head to the left, “The city runs on this clock’s chimes; what about those clocks and watches you make? I heard the computers in them.”
“I’ll find someone to train to repair them when I feel I need to.” Elizabeth shrugged.
“If the League manage to do what Benjamin is suggesting then you’ll never have the chance to,” Thirrin told her.
She rolled her eyes. “Oh all right…
Comments (0)
See all