Fiendish Schemes by K. W. Jeter

Author:K. W. Jeter
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction, General, Steampunk, Fiction
ISBN: 9781429992909
Publisher: Tor Books
Published: 2013-08-04T12:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

14

An Intimidating Apparition

Is Revealed

ONCE more, I found myself as an observer of disturbing events, stationed as I was at an elevated vantage point. Stonebrake led me up a narrow, dilapidated stairway, the rotted wooden treads of which sagged and splintered beneath our every step. However rudely constructed, the iron stairs I had been forced to mount back at the Fex establishment had been a model of security compared to this upward passage.

The ruinous state of these stairs seemed entirely a result of the continuous billows of steam hissing through every crevice. Within seconds of initiating my ascent—to whatever destination Stonebrake, in his usual fashion, refused to divulge—every stitch of clothing on my body was as sodden as though our single-file trek were through sultry tropical climes rather than a location to be found anywhere in the more comfortably sub-tepid Britain to which I was accustomed. Finger-thick rivulets of sweat streamed down my face and under my wilting collar as I progressed higher. However deleterious the steam’s effect upon the human frame, it was obvious to my misty scrutiny that its cumulative damage to the structure’s fittings was even greater. My shoulder brushed against planks hewn from ancient oaks, now warped and split, each separating in wobbly fashion from the next, producing gaps as pronounced and ill-smelling as those in some elderly vagrant’s dentition. Patches of mould and mildew, as large and elaborate as embroidered antimacassars, adorned the walls. All of Nature’s obnoxious fecundity was on display, due in part to the soft glow of luminous fungi sprouting in every corner.

We escaped at last from the confining stairway, exiting into an only seemingly larger observation gallery of some sort. The empty benches were so deformed by the constant heat and moisture as to have corkscrewed themselves loose from their moorings. Their rotting cushions had tumbled to the slanting floor, there to be subsumed into the concaved boards’ moist rot. I feared for my own safety as each of my steps set the structure flexing in a dismaying fashion. The general neglect and decay made it a facile matter to imagine my foot plunging through the spongy wood, to be followed in short order by my entire body.

“Here’s a good spot.” Stonebrake crouched down by the front of the gallery. “We should be afforded a decent enough view.”

At first, I had thought his kneeling, hunched-over posture had been assumed merely to keep his head beneath the ceiling timbers, which were precipitously bowing toward us. However, the admonitory fingertip he held to his lips as I approached, cautiously as possible, signaled a different motive on his part. To wit, his desire to keep our presence here unobserved, presumably from whatever persons might already be in the larger chamber which our station overlooked. Accustomed by now to my companion’s stealthy tendencies, I hunkered down beside him, all the better to gaze over the gallery’s edge without alerting anyone who might have glanced up in our direction.

“What is this place?” I spoke as I gripped a handrail as moist as though it had been boiled in a soup kettle.

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