Clockworks Chronicles of Zahn

3) The Shadow of the Ivory Tower

Lady Kali stood on the balcony of the large manor house that had become her home for the last two months. She was once known simply as Sally. But that was another lifetime ago. As a matter of fact, she was on her fourth lifetime after a fashion. Her first life was as Sally, a luckless lady of the night. Her next brief life was when her soul, or essence or whatever you call it was transferred to a Shadow Sentinel to be enslaved for the purposes of overthrowing Empress Victoria II of The Civilization. Then for a brief time she was conscripted by the very same Empress that she was sent to kill, becoming one of her protectors. Finally, she found herself rescued by her most wonderful benefactor, Charlemagne Vorraceter. Not only did he rescue her from servitude but also, he shared her vision of a Clockworks free Zahn. This was when she took her new name, Lady Kali after the very goddess of death worshiped on the southern peninsula of the Easter Continent.

She glanced at her reflection in the glass doors that opened up to the balcony and she was pleased with the image. Charlemagne had taken the effort to change her outer appearance to a more maiden form. Yet, even with her curves and color changes, she still retained the look of a mechanical monolith that was destined to shake the very foundations of this world and do away with all other mechanical obscenities.

Her revelry was interrupted by the sound of Miss Alexander breezing into the room and humming a triumphant tune. As she stripped off her gloves, she looked up at Lady Kali and sketched a slight curtsey and then she said, “My dear Sally, you were right. It will be ultimately easier to set the resources of others to the problem of Calvin Cooper. Although I wish we didn’t have to expend such funds for the endeavor.”

“If you had not, the master and I would be reading about your capture or death in the Grandeur Times. Don’t worry about the funds my dear Murielle. The master has assured us that that amount didn’t even put a slight dent in his resources. He had been gathering resources and mana for more than five hundred years in anticipation for this very time.

“Besides, it’s not like you’re spending your own monies on this project.”

“Oh, I know. It’s just that I was always taught by my father that money was to be jealously guarded and only dispensed when absolutely necessary.” She shrugged and said, “Yet I understand that it will not be my own family’s funds that will be tapped for this project. Also, I truly believe that the endeavor will make us richer than Avarice.”

The deep baritone voice penetrated the room from the adjacent study, “And your family name will become of the new nobility my dear Murielle Alexander.”

Miss Alexander savored the voice and how it seemed to sooth her very soul. She found herself longing to hear his voice every day. She couldn’t explain it. It was as if without his voice, her soul was thirsting only to be sated by just a few syllables. She smiled as he entered the room and said, “Right you are master! No more will the Alexanders scrape and bow at the behest of foppish nobles who have no stomach for blood. My great, great, great, grandfather knew that someday our family name will be held high. He foresaw that in his journals.” She got a wistful look then she said with a bitter tone, “The very journals that that man Cooper destroyed in his wanton abandon. He had no reason to burn down everything.”

She watched as Charlemagne entered the room fully to reveal his true form. He was an automaton much like Lady Kali only he was built with a grace of form and splendor not ever seen in an automaton before or since. Looking at him, Miss Alexander couldn’t get over the irony of his beautiful voice coming from an automaton. Never before had she heard anything but a buzzy, grating sounding voice from any automaton. Charlemagne was a paradox among paradoxes. She didn’t know who had built him over a thousand years ago, but she knew that whoever it was, was a master without equal. Perhaps the great Wingdama Aling himself. She knew that he knew his creator but he had yet to share that information. She resigned herself to wait until or if he ever shares that information with her.

He continued in his smooth chocolate voice, “Worry not my dear, all wrongs will be righted in the end.” And she believed him.

He walked over to the corner of the room and stood before a strange looking clockworks globe that was made up of hundreds if not thousands of tiny gears, springs, swing arms and other sundry clockworks. He then asked, “So Tara James is truly in play then?”

“Yes indeed.” She said triumphantly.

She saw him reach into a wooden box and took out a small cogged disk and carefully placed it in the globe on a spindle. Then with a tap on the clockworks around that gear, the sector around it began to rotate in sync with the rest of the clockworks of the globe. He then asked, “And your Shadowmen are still keeping up the pressure on Colonel Cooper?”

“Of course, master!”

He then repeated the action of taking another gear and putting into another part of the globe that was motionless then he set that part into motion as well. He then stepped backwards and examined the globe noting the three remaining sectors of the globe that were not in motion yet.

“We need one more demi and two more immortals to be put into play before we can set the final plans into motion.

“I wish your brother hadn’t lost that sword cane of his. That is still an essential piece that needs to be brought to our side of the game board.”

“Well, isn’t that why you had me set Tara James on recovering it?”

“I do not have high hopes that she will. Besides, she is necessary to the game for other reasons. If she happens to recover the sword then that would be phenomenal. However, she will better serve our purposes by dying in the attempt.”

Murielle Alexander, not for the first time, felt the frustration of not being able to understand the overall plan. She had been taught intrigue from the time she was able to walk so she understood some of the most intricate plans to bring down governments and change societies. Her master’s plan was far more complex and deeper in layers that anything she had ever seen in her studies or experience. The working globe had made the plan a little easier to comprehend but only barely. She strolled over to stand next to her new master and looked at the gears that were in motion. She then pointed to a part that wasn’t in motion and asked, “And so this is the final demi that we need to put into play?”

“Quite.”

“And who is this demi? You know that there are even less demis than immortals?”

“Yes, indeed. This Demi is a very unusual one indeed. He is a ward of Her Eminent Empress Victoria II. His name is Ouihan.”

“And how do we put him in play?” Murielle asked with keen interest.

“Why it is simplicity itself. Especially for one of your skillsets. You merely need to kill him.”

Murielle thought for a moment then finally decided to ask the question that had been burning in the back of her mind for a long time, “If keeping Colonel Cooper busy is so important, then why don’t we go after one or both of his adopted daughters?”

Charlemagne looked at her and she could see the disappointment in his automaton face as he said, “Do you really want to cause the ruination of us all? Cooper burnt down the Gentleman’s Club going after your brother because he was a threat to his beloved Victoria II. Could you imagine what he would do to us if we were to hurt or threaten one of his adopted daughters? He would move heaven and hell and drop them on our very heads.”

Ouihan and Sister were working in the laboratory on a project that the Imperial Headmaster had assigned them. As always, Ouihan took his time and followed the Headmaster’s instructions to the letter. He knew that the Headmaster wasn’t going to accept a better version of the project that both he and sister were far more capable of doing.

Sister and he were finding it hard to stay out of trouble with Imperial Headmaster and his old-fashioned ideas of child education. On more than one occasion they had to appeal to Empress Victoria II to intervene on their behalf in regard to the stringent and quite frankly capricious discipline that he required of the children. Every time they had to involve the Empress, they felt guilty because of all the other duties and requirements that befell her in these days of transition from one government to another.

Add to that that the Headmaster seemed to single out Ouihan and Sister in an obvious effort to try to break their independence. They were still the leaders of the now Children of the Crown and the other children looked to them for all things. It was very much obvious that the Imperial Headmaster was jealous of the regard that Ouihan and Sister enjoyed from the rest of the children.

The unintended consequence of his harsh treatment of Ouihan and Sister was that it nurtured a greater contempt from the other children towards him.

Ouihan and Sister did their best to keep the other children in line, however, these independent minded and ingenious children have been guilty, more than a few times, of tom foolery retribution or in other words, pranks.

One or two of these pranks had the Headmaster in near apoplexy. Each time he would direct punishment on Ouihan and Sister, holding them responsible for the other children’s conduct.

Ouihan felt that this cycle was beginning to spin out of control but with all his wisdom and experience he really didn’t see a way out of this short of somehow removing the Headmaster from the equation. His moral standards refused to let him pursue that path because he knew that too often that way led to blood.

So, Sister and he continued to try to manage the situation and keep the other children in line, all the while, Sister and he were dealing with another, secret issue. His true identity. That night, two months ago he gazed upon the Glass Darkly and he discovered that he was indeed the reincarnation of the slain Wingdama Aling. He was an immortal. Not a demi as the Empress originally thought.

He had spent his spare time, of which he had little, over the last two months to sort through his memories and the knowledge that he was essentially born with.

All these things, playing on one another, had affected his relationship with Sister. He was thankful that it didn’t do so in a negative way. At first, when she learned his secret, she looked upon him with awe and not a little bit of fear. But as they continued on to deal with the daily challenges their relationship seemed to be welded together forming a stronger bond between them that he knew he had never had before, not in his over a thousand years of life. This he treasured.

Master Evens, a child of some minor noble or another that Ouihan couldn’t keep straight, stepped into the laboratory and said, “Ouihan, the Headmaster wants you to report to him in his office at once!”

One of the many things that the Headmaster had done that was consternating to the Children of the Crown was to incorporate the brand-new laboratory and other facilities that were allotted specifically for the former orphans, into the teaching of the other nobles’ children. In fact, many times, he forced the orphans to wait as he gave the noble children precedence.

Ouihan knew that this was not what Victoria II had intended, but because her time had been so taxed lately with the formation of the new government that he hesitated to bring it to her attention.

Ouihan shrugged and took up his school bag and gear and got up. Sister started following suit since she was always summoned along with him.

“Not you Sister! He wants to see Ouihan alone.” Master Evens said with his haughty air on full display. He had, up till now, demonstrated nothing but contempt for the Children of the Crown. He, as well as most of the other noble children, seemed to feel that the Empress was mistaken for affording these children the honors that she has.

Sister shrugged and sat back down, but she reached out and touched Ouihan’s hand with hers and said, “Good luck.”

Ouihan smiled weakly and then followed Master Evens out of the room. Master Evens lead him out of the library complex that was the home of the Children of the Crown across to a four story building on the palace grounds that served as the school house for the noble and gentry children of those who lived on the palace grounds and served the crown.

Directly across from the main entrance was a plush looking office that belonged to the Imperial Headmaster. Evens directed Ouihan to go in so he complied.

Sitting behind the sumptuous desk was Headmaster Warren writing on some sort of ledger. Ouihan stood waiting patiently. The Headmaster finished writing whatever annotation he was working on and looked up over his glasses to Ouihan. He looked at Ouihan for more than a minute before he finally spoke, “I am told that you have an unauthorized device in your possession.”

“Whatever do you mean sir?” Ouihan was truly perplexed.

“Don’t play coy with me. You know exactly what I am talking about. That spidery thing that you keep in your school bag!”

“Oh, you mean Gidget. She is not unauthorized. As a matter of fact, she had played a part in her Eminence’s return to power.”

“So, you say. I don’t believe you and once more I have not authorized that piece of equipment so I will be confiscating it now.” He held out his hand expectantly.

Ouihan had to fight back his anger. He truly felt that Headmaster Warren was crossing a line that he had no business crossing. He was sorely tempted to use his own power to change him into something…unnatural. He was more than capable. However, he held himself to a higher moral standard than most people, so he resisted the urge.

He did, however, hesitate and asked, “And if I hand her over to you what will you be doing with her?”

“There is no IF about it. You will hand IT over to me so I can destroy IT properly.”

“If I were you, I would wait to destroy her until I had a chance to discuss it with Her Eminence. She has expressed a fondness for her.” Ouihan said with a certainty and tone of one who is far older than his twelve-year-old body represented.

“Well you are not me so I will be the judge of what I do!” and he shook his hand for added emphasis.

Ouihan fought his desire to rid himself of his major problem and one true obstacle in his life at the moment. Finally, he gave in and reached into his bag and withdrew Gidget. But before handing her over to the overbearing Headmaster he whispered a protection spell over her. A very old school protection spell at that. Then he handed her over.

The headmaster got a look of triumph on his face as he took Gidget and put her in his desk. “You will learn your place you piece of street trash. You have no business living on the palace grounds. However, since I have to put up with you and your fellows, you will begin towing the line. You are dismissed.” He waved his hand to emphasize the dismissal.

Ouihan turned and left. He walked down the short corridor to the main doors that lead to the school building then exited onto the palace grounds. He could walk no more than twenty feet before he was intercepted by Master Evens and three other “Noble” children.

They quickly surrounded him, and Evens started rolling up his sleeves and he said, “Now, I think that you are going to run away from the palace grounds so that no one will find you again.”

Ouihan thought to himself, ‘really? Does he think himself capable of murder?’

What he said out loud was, “I have been challenged by much better than you. I have killed Shadowmen. Do you really want to do this? Now we can all just walk away and forget that this ever happened.”

“You are a liar. I don’t believe that you did any of those things you brag about.”

Ouihan shrugged and rolled up his sleeve.

Sometime later a patrol of the palace guards found the four boys laying unconscious on the side of the walk way.