Clockwork Fairy Tales: A Collection of Steampunk Fables (35 page)

I had been beat up many times by boys and men bigger than Corbin, and I had learned how to take it, how to shield my head and ribs, how to give as each blow hit. I knew how to survive…and how to keep my mouth shut.

But each time he hit me my temper grew. There was just
something about the whole weird, unreal situation, about being blamed for every little thing that went wrong, Corbin saying I was too weak to tighten a bolt or compression fitting, calling me “Dummy” ten times a day, kicking, punching, smacking me and all the other boys every chance he got, and now he was going to blame me for what he did to the suit…blame me when it was him all along.

The steam valve inside me blew. I had taken all I was going to take from Corbin. I wasn’t going to stand there and let him hit me anymore. He was bigger than me, but I knew where to hit big boys to stop them from hurting me. I raised my hands, took a step back, and said, “I won’t say anything. Don’t, don’t hit me anymore, please.” Then I kicked him as hard as I could in the shin.

And when he howled and grabbed his leg…I kicked him in the balls.

He made an “Oomph!” sound and fell to the ground, hands between his legs.

I didn’t wait around to find out what else he had to say. I ran as fast as I could back up to the main house and all the way back upstairs to the attic room. I didn’t even try to be quiet about it, either. By the time I shook Russell awake, lamps were being lit downstairs and I could hear voices echoing through the halls and up the stairs.

“What! What is it?” Russell said, wiping the sleep from his eyes.

“Corbin!” I said, breathing hard. “I kicked Corbin!”

“You what?”

“I saw him down in the workshop…he was…he was messing up the Clockwork Suit.”

“He what?” Russell said, jumping out of bed. There was moonlight coming in through the dormer window, enough so we didn’t light the oil lamp. “But you said that you were going to—”

“I know, but he was doing it first! I yelled at him and he caught me and started hitting me…and…and I kicked him…hard.”

Russell looked at me more closely in the moonlight. He must have seen some blood and bumps from Corbin’s beating because
his eyes grew round. Then his open mouth turned into a grin. “You kicked Corbin?”

“Yeah,” I said, smiling. “Right in the balls.”

Russell let out a loud, barking laugh before grabbing his mouth and looking toward the door. “You have to get out of here. When Corbin gets up here, he’ll kill you!”

“I know, I know.” Suddenly I started crying. I couldn’t help myself. I was scared and beaten and terrified about what might happen.

“Come on,” Russell said, grabbing my hand, “maybe you can make it out onto the roof and down the gutter pipe before he gets here.”

We rushed over to the window that led out to the roof and had just started to push up against the heavy frame when we heard Jarvis yell, “What the hell is going on in here?”

We both jumped and turned around, reflexively holding our hands behind our backs as if caught stealing.

Jarvis stood in the doorway holding an oil lamp in one hand, the other propped on his hip. “I said,” he repeated, stepping into the room, “what the hell is going on?”

Russell looked at me, then back at Jarvis, then at me again. I didn’t know what to do or say, so I just stood there.

“Either of you two,” Jarvis said, walking toward us, “going to tell me what—” Suddenly he stopped and squinted at me, holding the light closer. “Donny, what happened to you?”

I knew I was in trouble, just how much trouble, I couldn’t imagine, so I started talking fast, making sure to leave out the part about what Russell and I had talked about earlier.

“I went down to the workshop,” I said in a rush, “just to make sure I had tightened all the nuts and bolts and screws and connectors ’cause Corbin says I’m too weak to get them tight enough and the professor got mad last time and I just wanted to do things right, and—and Corbin was there and he was working on the clockworks with a file and—and then he took a punch and knocked a hole in the boiler and I said, ‘Hey, don’t do that,’ and then he was hitting me and so I—so I…I…kicked him.”

Jarvis looked at me as if frogs had been jumping out of my mouth. He pointed at us and said, “You two stay right there. Don’t move.”

It didn’t take long before the professor and all the boys were standing around in our room all talking at once. Finally the professor said, “Quiet! Everyone quiet down. Jarvis has gone down to the workshop to check on Corbin. We’ll get all this sorted out when they return.”

But they didn’t return—at least, Corbin didn’t. Jarvis hurried in by himself, his eyes wide. “Corbin’s gone. Can’t find hide nor hair of him, and there’s one of those funny lamps on in the workshop.”

The professor started to say something, then stopped. I could almost see the gears in his head turning as he thought things through. Finally he looked at me and said, “Donny, come along. I think we better have a look at the Clockwork Suit.”

It wasn’t just me and the professor that made it down to the workshop—everybody in the house came along to find out what had happened. I followed the professor into the special room where we kept the emperor’s suit. Professor Widget grabbed the Ruhmkorff lamp Corbin had been using and cranked the handle until it shone bright. Then he leaned in close and went over the suit of armor inch by inch.

I pointed to the place where Corbin had been punching a hole in the Steam Chamber. I think everybody was holding their breaths as Professor Widgerty looked in and around the shining suit. I know I was.

Suddenly he stood up and bellowed, “Sabotage! That little bastard has sabotaged my creation. The whole thing would’ve blown up in the middle of our demonstration right in front of the emperor!”

I realized that Corbin had solved all of my problems. He had ruined the Clockwork Suit, and it would be months before the professor could get another appointment. Plus, he had gotten himself removed from the workshop and taken all the blame with him.

I should have been happy—things couldn’t have turned out better. But I still wanted to know why.

“Why would he do it, Professor?” I asked.

The professor’s face grew dark and I saw a look of hatred that scared me. “Schneider,” he said. “That bastard must have gotten to Corbin…bought him with a bag of gold and silver, no doubt. He’s been out to ruin me for years. He has had his spies watching my workshop from the very first day. He is an unscrupulous, untalented, shortsighted cretin. But thanks to you, Donny, we may have caught him in time. Russell, you know where Algert lives. Run and fetch him. You other boys, get some lamps lit and start up the boiler. No telling what we may need.

“Donny, you and I will get to work setting things right. We’ll stay up all night if we have to, but we will get the Clockwork Suit running in time for the appointment with the emperor tomorrow.”

I
t was a long night of everyone pitching in together to get the suit repaired in time for the appointment the next day. When Russell got back with Algert, we exchanged a few looks, but neither of us could figure out any way of stopping or slowing down the repairs. Both the professor and Algert were watching everyone closely and checking and double-checking everything we did.

I was deep inside the suit with a Ruhmkorff lamp just inches from my face, trying to tighten every bolt and nut and screw, when I saw where Corbin had cut a deep notch in the axle for the main cogset assembly. It wasn’t enough to keep the clockworks from running, but I could tell that if it got under too much pressure, if Algert tried to lift something heavy, the axle would break.

Corbin was smart. He didn’t rely on just one or two things to stop the Clockwork Suit; he made sure something would break or slip or fall apart sometime in the middle of the demonstration. The professor had found all of the other problems Corbin had caused, but this one, this was too far up inside and he would never see it.

I closed my eyes and thought for a moment, trying to decide whether or not to tell the professor. He would never be able to fix the axle before the appointment, too many cogs and sprockets
connected to the assembly. But if he knew about it, he could just postpone the appointment, and we would have to do it all over again.

But what if I didn’t tell him? What if I kept my mouth shut and left things as they were? The axle would break, all of the cogs and sprockets would slip out of place, and the whole thing would just stop. The professor would lose his commission; he would have to start all over with something else, something better…something really worth the emperor’s money.

I looked more closely at the notch Corbin had made…perhaps…yes, as soon as Algert tried to pick up something heavy, the axle would break; I was sure of it. I nodded to myself and yelled, “Everything looks good in here, Professor.”

As I climbed out of the suit, I said, “Corbin couldn’t get to any of the nuts and bolts deep inside. They’re all still tight.”

“Excellent, Donny. Excellent,” the professor, said rubbing his hands together. “Now, if Algert can get the Steam Chamber up to pressure, we may still make our appointment.”

Algert worked almost until dawn sealing up the hole Corbin had put in the compression chamber. He stood back from his work and scratched his bald head. “Well, it’s not as good as new, but it should hold long enough to impress the emperor.”

“Excellent!” the professor said, clapping his hands together. “Capital!” He took a closer look at the patch and asked, “And you think it will hold long enough to do the demonstration?”

“I’ll try not to slam around too much,” Algert added. “Patches are never as secure as solid unbroken metal, but I’ll go slow and easy just to be sure.”

“We’ll just have to be extra careful loading and unloading,” the professor said. “I can make up some excuse for why we have to take things easy…or perhaps I could even tell the truth!”

He and Algert broke into a fit of laughter.

I looked at Russell and saw the worry on his face reflecting my own.

We got things patched up and in working order just in time to load the suit onto a strong wagon, then head off up to the palace.
It was a long worrisome ride for me and Russell. I kept hoping that the Clockwork Suit would just fall off the wagon. But no such luck.

We arrived just a few minutes behind schedule. As we were unloading the suit, I noticed that both the professor and Algert were trying hard to look confident and cool, but I could tell that they were nervous.

We were led into a big hall with a paved stone floor and told that the emperor would be with us shortly. We unstrapped the suit from its wheeled hand truck and stood it upright. Algert filled the boiler and lit the burner; it would take several minutes to build up steam.

Russell and I unlocked and swung open the chest and girdle plates so that Algert could get in. The whole insides with all the gears, cables, pressure plates, and levers were open to view.

Finally the emperor came in along with an entourage of attendants, advisers, and military men. We lowered our heads until the emperor was seated upon a raised dais. I don’t think it was an actual throne, but it was good enough for me. He nodded and one of his attendants turned to us and said, “You may begin your demonstration.”

I was standing at attention, kind of half bowing, waiting for the professor to tell me what to do. I looked around and saw that Russell looked as if he might faint, but the professor and Algert both had big smiles and looked as if they did this sort of thing every day.

The professor stepped forward and said, “Your Imperial Majesty, thank you for this generous opportunity, and welcome to the future. Today we will demonstrate only a fraction of the potential abilities of our wonderful Clockwork Suit of Armor. We must apologize to you in advance; late last night, a former employee damaged several, um, internal workings of the suit, particularly the Steam Chamber, and we have only just managed to put things right again. Have no fear, the suit will still function properly, only not for the full length of time we had planned, owing to the particular damage, as I said, to the Steam Chamber itself,
which is essentially the pumping heart of the machine and which drives the suit.”

Some of the military men and advisers began to grumble to each other, but the emperor’s face maintained its look of mild interest.

“Again we apologize, Your Majesty. However, we will endeavor to show you what we can and hope that it is enough to impress you and your advisers on the absolute necessity of funding our research so that we can equip our soldiers with the very best equipment and protection to defend this great country of ours.”

He looked at Algert, who was standing behind the suit as it
chug, chug, chugged
along, building steam. Algert looked at the compression dial and nodded back to the professor.

“Come along, lads,” the professor said. “Help Algert into the suit.”

We stood to each side so that Algert could put his hands on our shoulders as he climbed into the suit. Once he was in, we closed up the greaves, the cuisses, the thigh plates, the faulds, then the breastplate, and watched as the professor lowered the visor.