Steampunk Shenanigans

“We just need passage out of Arcelia. But we don’t have much money.”

“Then I’m not sure what you’re doing here, Mr. and Mrs. Kipling. My sister and I aren’t in the business of doing free favors. We’re not running a charity.”

“You can take the girl.”

Evie was trying to hide behind her mother’s skirt, but Janice grew impatient and tugged her into the open, presenting her to the scary looking man and woman.

“She can read, and she’s small even for her age. You use children sometimes, don’t you? For errands?”

“They can be surprisingly useful,” the dark haired woman said, leaning over to study Evie. “Well look at you. Those eyes are almost too big for your face, aren’t they? People go crazy for kids with big eyes. Oh, Corby, I do think she can be of use to us.”

The scary man glanced back at Evie’s father, who’d been giving them the sales pitch. “Fine, we get you passage on a boat out of Arcelia so you can escape your crushing debt. We keep the girl.”

“Mommy?” Evie piped up nervously. “Do I really have to stay with them? Why can’t I go with you?”

“Evangeline, you know it gives Mommy headaches when you ask too many questions,” Janice replied tersely.

“But when are you coming back? I don’t like it here.”

“You’ll be on the Silver Dolphin,” the man told her parents. “It’s a steam powered boat; not as fast or fancy as the airships but then, you did only pay us with a kid and you get what you pay for, don’t you? The ship leaves at nine o’clock, so you’d best get a move on. Tell the captain we sent you.”

“Of course. Thank you, Mr. Mycroft. That’s most generous of you. Come along, Harry.” Janice tugged on her husband’s arm and they hurried from the dark, smoky room without even looking back. Evie made a move to follow them.

“But, Mommy, when are you coming back?” she called anxiously. The dark-haired woman caught her arm, leaning down to look at her again.

“They’re not coming back,” she said. “You’re going to stay here now. I’m Olessa, and that’s my brother Corbin. Your mommy and daddy have no time or patience for you.”

“But why?” Evie felt her eyes start to tear up.

“Well, you’re probably a bad girl,” Olessa said.

“But I’m not,” Evie protested.

“Then why would they leave you here?” Olessa patted her on the head. “They tried their best, but some children aren’t lovable, you see. So they gave you to us, so you can at least be useful. Doesn’t that sound fun? We’ll teach you all sorts of things.”

“I want to go home.”

Olessa laughed lightly. “Silly. This is your home now, little Evie.”

Evie stared down at the cuffs on her wrist, remembering the night her parents had dumped her off with Olessa and Corbin and fled Arcelia because they’d managed to squander their fortune and owed a lot of money to a lot of people. Damien was right; she didn’t like the Mycrofts. She hated them so much it made her throat burn, but the cuff wouldn’t allow her to leave the city. Even with how huge it was, they would track her down if she tried to hide out somewhere and whatever punishment they dreamed up would definitely be worse than death. So she dealt with the abuse and the crummy apartment and stole things when they asked her to. She’d been just shy of ten when her parents left her, and she’d long ago given up on ever being free.

Damien said he could get the cuffs off, but she tried to temper her expectations. She had helped kidnap him so he wasn’t exactly under any obligation to do her any favors, and she didn’t really know if he could get them off. If she let herself hope too hard, it made disappointment that much more crushing. She glanced over at him, where he was still laying on the floor catching his breath. She took a breath and shoved away her bad memories.

“I tried to warn you that it would hurt,” she said as he finally rolled over and got gingerly to his feet.

“Yeah. Yeah, it hurt,” he agreed. “But now we know we have about a twenty foot radius to work with. Have you been zapped a lot?”

“A few times,” Evie mumbled.

“Does everyone who works for them wear one of those?”

“No. Just the ones they think are more likely to cause them problems.”

“How long have you had to wear it? This thing chafes.”

“I’ve had it since I was ten,” she said calmly. He was trying to brush down his zap-tousled hair and paused to glance at her.

“Since you were ten?” he repeated.

Evie shrugged. “Listen, we’re going to have to take something back to show Corbin. He really doesn’t respond well to being disappointed. We’ll take some plans that are incomplete, or ones that maybe obviously won’t work. It’ll buy us some time.”

“Right, good idea.”

Damien seemed to have recovered from his shock from the cuff, and sat down in the other chair. He scooted up to the large desk and rifled through the pages of notes and sketches. He set aside a couple of things, then leaned back and studied his cuff. He reached for her wrist, gesturing to her cuffs.

“May I?”

She reluctantly pulled up her sleeve and let him inspect the cuffs.

“My older one will be slightly different,” she said. “It’s not connected to another cuff and the range is different since it’s only supposed to keep me in the city.”

He nodded. “It’s not too different though. If I can figure out how to disrupt the connection to our matching ones, I can do it for this one, too.”

Evie was still skeptical but she just sat back and watched for a while as he scribbled and sketched. Then she glanced around, studying the lab. It was large, with lots of papers and gadgets scattered around. She felt a nudge on her leg and looked down to see the fox nosing around her curiously.

“Oh, hello,” Evie said. “Minnie, was it?”

The fox stood on her hind legs, placing her front paws on Evie’s knee. Evie smiled slightly, reaching out a hand to pet her head. She’d never had a pet, even before her parents abandoned her. They weren’t really animal lovers. Eventually she had to nudge Damien to get his attention, pointing out that they should be getting back soon.

She stopped at the tea shop she’d mentioned, and then they made their way back to the inn. She had just handed Damien a cup of tea when Corbin and Olessa arrived.

“Oh, you poor thing,” Olessa cooed, making a pouty face when she saw the fading bruise across Damien’s nose. “Corby, look what you did to his handsome face.”

“He’ll survive,” Corbin said dismissively. “Did you two find anything?”

Damien handed over the notes he’d deemed safe enough to give them. Olessa looked over them with keen interest.

“You’re proving to be so productive already,” she said, patting his cheek. Damien scooted slightly away and sipped his tea.

“I need you to go see Stefan tomorrow,” Corbin said to Evie. “He has some parts that I need picked up.”

“Why don’t you go get them?” Olessa frowned. “They’ll have to waste most of the day to go see Stefan.”

“Because he only gives us a good rate if I send Evie,” Corbin snapped, looking annoyed. “If I go he charges more because he knows he can. He doesn’t like me.”

“Hard to imagine, what with your sunny personality,” Damien quipped and Evie barely managed to suppress an amused smile.

“I’ll pick up the parts,” she said, to distract Corbin as he shot Damien a cold look. After another few moments of Corbin looking annoyed and Olessa blatantly flirting with Damien, they left.

“She’s…aggressive,” Damien said and Evie laughed lightly.

“Yeah, you wanna watch your back around her. I think she bites men’s heads off after mating.”

“I could see that,” he agreed. In the morning, Evie rose early and threw on a ruffly pink dress and poked her head into the other room to collect Damien. She didn’t really want to drag him off to Stefan’s, but they didn’t have a choice.

“So who is this Stefan?” Damien asked as she hailed a steam cab.

“He runs a mechanic shop, but he also deals in acquiring and selling slightly less than legal things. Stolen parts, shady tech.”

When they walked into the shop people were already at work cursing and clanging as they built and repaired steam-powered vehicles. Evie was greeted with the usual wolf whistles as she navigated her way to Stefan’s office. She sighed when she found his nephew Angelo there instead. He glanced up and broke into a grin.

“Evie, it’s been a long time,” he said cheerily.

“Oh, not long enough,” Evie replied. Angelo hopped up and came around the desk, giving her an enthusiastic kiss on the hand before she managed to snatch it away and make a face.

“Who’s your friend?” Angelo asked, glancing at Damien.

“I need to pick up some parts,” Evie said, ignoring him. “Some stuff Corbin needed.”

“Now Evangeline, you don’t need to come over here just for business. If you want to visit me you can just stop by.”

“Do you have what I need, or not?” Evie asked impatiently.

“I’ve been trying to tell you for years that I have what you need, but you insist on denying yourself.”

Evie rolled her eyes. “Where is your uncle, so I can talk to someone around here who actually has a brain?”

“Angelo, are you bothering Evie again?” Stefan stepped into the office, raising an eyebrow at his nephew. He was a giant of a man, with scarred knuckles and lots of tattoos.

“Stefan, thank god,” Evie said. Stefan cracked a smile.

“You here for Corbin’s stuff?” he asked and she nodded.

“Angelo, go get the box.”

Angelo sighed and left to get the parts. Stefan settled in behind his desk and chatted with Evie for a while. He shot Damien a curious glance but Evie just said it was a long story and he didn’t push it. Angelo returned and handed her a small box of gears and motor parts.

“Until next time, pretty Evie,” he said. She snatched the box away.

“You’re an idiot.” Evie started to march out of the office, ushering Damien ahead of her.

“You’re such a heartbreaker, Evie,” Angelo called after her, amused. “The new guy better watch himself around you.”

Evie flipped him off as she walked away, huffing when they got outside. Damien looked like he was trying not to snicker.

“I can cover for some extra time by saying I had to wait for Stefan to come back from an errand. You should probably stop by your place and get some clothes and stuff, unless you want to keep wearing the same thing forever. I don’t know, maybe you like the rumpled suit look.”

He grimaced. “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea. And I’d like to stop by the lab again to check on Minnie.”

Evie nodded, adjusting the box under her arm. “Let’s go, then.”