A Market of Dreams and Destiny by Trip Galey

Author:Trip Galey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags:  
Publisher: Titan Books

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Pierrick padded softly across the workhouse floor, trying to tread as lightly as the snowflakes he liked to imagine would fall any time now. It was Yule, after all. There should be snow. And a frost fair. And something hot to drink that warmed your belly even as your nose and ears turned red from cold.

But there wasn’t. Instead, there was this horrible place. And he was trapped here. Trapped with good people, to be sure, like Vimukti and Owain. He smiled at the thought of the other boy. Having a friend inside helped.

The smile faltered. But it didn’t stop the torment. Or the pain. Or the fear.

No, if Pierrick was going to stop those things he would have to do it himself. And the key was this new machine. Vimukti had said it was valuable, that it would save the Graspars a lot of money and make them more. And now everyone was out, enjoying their hard-earned holiday, he had the perfect chance to investigate – and possibly break – the thing.

It was eerie, hearing the workhouse so quiet, without the hum and buzz and heat of the machinery, threatening to chew him up and spit him out. But there was still light, here and there, and a bit of residual heat from the steamworks below. It was too expensive to shut them down entirely. They took forever to stoke.

Pierrick found himself drawn to the large hourglass at the centre of the machine. It was raised off the ground just enough that he could see the metal iris that formed the bottom of it. Some kind of hatch to load materials into, as Vimukti had described it.

He had to crouch down and carefully hop forward, ducking his head under the rim to get a good look inside. There had to be some way to sabotage it that wouldn’t violate his contract. If he could just get a good enough look—

‘Now, Junior!’

Pierrick felt rough hands at his back shove him bodily into the glass enclosure and the metal iris snapped closed, narrowly missing his feet. He spiralled his arms wildly, but it seemed as if the earth had lost all claim to him. He floated, nauseatingly weightless, in the middle of the small chamber.

Through the glass he could see Garog’s face leering at him, and Missus Graspar approaching slowly, the monster of a mutt dragging itself panting and wheezing behind her.

‘I told you I saw him, mum,’ Garog preened. ‘Didn’t I tell you? You questioned him and everything, but you let him go. I was right though. He came back.’

‘You were right indeed, my sweet. And how fortunate for us that you were. Here we are with a volunteer, when I thought we’d have to chase down some of the rats in the attic for our little experiment.’

Experiment? Pierrick began to swing wildly at the glass, but he could get no purchase. He was weightless, and the crystalline walls seemed always just beyond his reach.

‘Let me out of here,’ he screamed.

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