Agamemnon Frost and the Crown of Towers by Knox Kim

Author:Knox, Kim [Knox, Kim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Carina Press
Published: 2013-10-13T21:00:00+00:00

8. Barricading the City

Frost stood at the hotel window, perfectly still. It was the stillness that again disturbed Mason. Frost was withdrawing; had been since Nestor had taken personal charge at Greenbank Hall.

The light from the single gas lamp on a small table flickered against Frost’s perfect features. Gas hissed and it was the only sound in the silence. There was a bleakness to Frost now, something lost. They were on the brink of losing everything...and the one man they needed stared out of a long window, watching a city trying to save itself from chaos.

“The report is that Captain Beresford is resting.” Mason ran his fingers over the ektaxis, still unused to the device. Nestor had taken one glance at Frost as they stood on the lawns of his estate and handed over the narrow plate of copper. Then Nestor gave the nod for a modified aeolipile to swing its wrecking ball into Frost’s half-destroyed home. “He’s healing fast, they say.”

“The tunic I ordered him to wear.” Frost’s words were quiet. “Its armour was grown from a slice of my bone, combined with copper.”

Warm, living metal now coated the captain’s skin. Mason’s throat tightened. Here was something else to which Frost could assign his guilt. “He’s been transfigured.”

“In a way. I don’t know what he is.” Frost’s laugh was dry with a hard edge. “We’ve yet to see if he develops a heightened sense of fashion.”

“On a captain’s wage?”

Frost snorted. “I’ll look into a stipend.” He turned away from the window, crossing the room to a sideboard. He toyed with the crystal stopper of a decanter. “I haven’t been able to drink myself into a stupor for too many years. Never thought I’d miss it.”

Mason pushed on with his report. “Nestor is securing the city. His men are hunting for Pandarus before he acts.” He glanced out of the window, the gaslit street empty of people, carts and trams even though it was only early evening. They could take no chances. His own instincts were screaming at him, a rawness to his nerves that he fought to suppress. Pandarus was in the city and their time was almost come. “He’s continuing the gas leak scare. After the destruction wrought by the hollow ships, Liverpool Corporation is more than ready to assist him.”

A smile tugged at the corner of Frost’s mouth. “I’ve never seen so many ’ships crowding the sky.” He frowned at the window, the running lights of the airships twinkling through the familiar wreaths of smoke and fog. “But a modified, gas-filled balloon is no match for Martian weaponry.”

He poured brandy into a rounded glass. “Would you like some? 1873. A passable year.”

Mason gritted his teeth. He didn’t want to fight with Frost, but his casual attitude, the air of defeat and almost disinterest that hung over the man tore fire through his gut. His instincts already had him panicked in a way he couldn’t explain, even to himself. He wanted the man he had come to know, to rely on, not this.

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