Steampunk Shenanigans

Evie was woken from her pleasant dream by the loud cawing of the mechanical raven on her nightstand. She stared up at the ceiling of her little room with a sigh. The first moments after waking up were always the worst. She was yanked away from her cozy dreams, one of the only places she could feel happy and free. She silenced the raven and rolled out of bed. Her shoulder length golden blonde curls were a fluffy mess around her head; she thought she looked a bit like a baby chicken who’d gotten a perm. Evie yawned and stretched, throwing on a dress and tying up her corset before brushing her hair into something more presentable, tying it back as best she could with a green ribbon that almost matched her eyes.

She stepped out of the tiny apartment and made her way upstairs to the much larger suite that took up the top floor. She found her “employers,” Olessa and Corbin Mycroft, sitting in the parlor of their grand rooms sipping strong coffee.

“Ah, there she is,” Olessa cooed. “Our own dear Evangeline, right on time. She’s so punctual, isn’t she, Corby? We trained her well.”

Evie’s left hand twitched reflexively as she thought of the small metal cuff around her wrist. The one she couldn’t remove, and that allowed the Mycroft siblings to keep tabs on her and send jolting waves of pain through her body at their leisure. She generally kept the cuff hidden with gloves or long sleeves. Despite the involuntary jerk of her fingers, she kept her expression neutrally blank as Olessa talked about her like she was a dog they’d housebroken.

“You said you had a job for me to do,” she said. Olessa set aside her cup of coffee and sat up. Her dark eyes shimmered eagerly.

“We do indeed, little Evie. It’s a very special job. Corbin and I have a project we need to complete, and you’re going to help us do it. Step one, we need you to kidnap someone. You’ll be catching him for us this evening coming out of the University. We’ll have a steam carriage parked nearby, so you’ll have a place to stash him. We want this to be quick and quiet.”

Usually they used Evie for stealing things or extracting information from people; being sent to steal a whole man was a new one. She didn’t know why they were sending her instead of Jerome or Orville, but she supposed it was because they looked menacing and utterly lacked finesse. Evie looked harmless, and she could do things quietly and neatly. Jerome or Orville would probably accidentally snap this guy in half trying to abduct him off the street.

Olessa showed her a photograph of the man in question, so Evie would know who to watch for. She scanned the photo and memorized the man’s features.

“I trust you can handle this?” Olessa said, giving her a look that said she had no choice.

“Our Evie is good at man handling,” Corbin smirked. Evie resisted the urge to kick him in the shin. She’d done it once, and it had felt great for all of about ten seconds before she’d been zapped so fiercely with the cuff that she’d actually convulsed on the floor like a hooked fish. She was dismissed and went to collect a small beaded purse and a hat from her room, looking like any ordinary girl about town. The purse contained a small gun and the feathers in her hat were actually lock picks.

She walked to the University, winding through the crowded cobbled streets of Arcelia. Mechanical horses and steam powered cabs competed for space amid the bustling people in this giant city surrounded by the ocean. It had once been where the borders of two small nations met, but after the Gear Wars nearly a hundred years ago, much of the continent of Calanthe was decimated and what remained were a few of these self-governing island cities. Arcelia was a thriving, colorful place with a strange mix-match of architectural styles and the illustrious University. Evie supposed she might have attended it, in another life. If her parents hadn’t sold her to the Mycrofts and fled Arcelia to escape the debts they’d accrued that had wiped out their fortune.

Evie perched on a bench across the way from one of the University’s entrances; on the western side of the sprawling grounds where Olessa had said she’d find their intended target. Evie fed some pigeons and pretended to read a newspaper while she waited. Evening was beginning to fall when she spotted the Mycroft carriage, and a few seconds later her target. It was good he hadn’t come out any later, or she might’ve missed him in the dark. The streets were quiet since lessons were done for the day and it looked like a rainstorm was moving in.

Evie rose from her bench and crossed to the path where the man was walking. She was coming at him from the opposite direction, keeping a serene and pleasant look on her face. Their eyes briefly met and they exchanged a polite nod in that way people do when they accidentally lock eyes with a stranger. Once he was passing her, Evie spun and pulled her gun free in one fluid motion. She caught his arm and jabbed the gun into his back.

“What in the-“ he began.

“Don’t ask questions, and don’t call out,” Evie instructed in a low voice. “You’re going to come with me, and you’re not going to make a scene.”

“I’m not sure I agree to either of those conditions.”

“You can agree or I can shoot you.”

“Okay well you do make a strong case.”

“This way.” Evie pulled on his arm, turning him in the direction of the carriage. She kept the gun pressed to his back as they walked, then instructed him to get into the carriage. She kept the gun out and in plain sight as they sat on the seat across from Olessa and Corbin.

“Look at you, Evie. Your first kidnapping,” Olessa said, grinning like a cat toying with its prey. “And isn’t he a cute little catch, too.”

“Who are you people and what do you want with me?”

“We’ll get to that, pet,” Olessa said. “We can’t give away everything all at once, where would the fun be in that? Mystery is what keeps life interesting.”

“You and I have very different ideas about what constitutes interesting,” he muttered. Evie wanted to warn him to shut the hell up before he made one of them angry.

“Well, you’ll have plenty of time to see things my way,” Olessa said cheerfully. “Because before we get into the gory details, we must deal with the first order of business.”

Evie’s stomach clenched when Olessa produced a cuff very similar to the one on Evie’s own left wrist.

“Is that really necessary?” she asked, before she could stop herself. Olessa snapped the cuff onto the guy’s arm none too gently and he winced a little.

“Oh, don’t fret, little Evie. We have some new jewelry for you, too,” Olessa said, her voice almost sing-song. Like she was giving Evie a fun gift. Evie started to shrink back but Corbin seized her wrist, tugging her forward and pushing up her sleeve. Her own cuff shone faintly in the dim light. Then a second one, identical to the one Olessa had put on their victim, was snapped on just below the one she’d been wearing since she was ten. Evie stared at it and felt sick.

“See, we need this nice young man to stick around a while,” Olessa explained. “So you two ducklings get to be cuff buddies so we can ensure he doesn’t escape the pond. Won’t that be fun?”

Evie just pulled her sleeve back down over the slim cuffs, which bit into her skin like little fangs. She felt a hot flash of hatred for the people sitting across from her but as usual, she swallowed it down and kept her face unreadable. Olessa clapped her hands, looking as delighted as a kid on Christmas morning while Evie concentrated on not throwing up.