For a Few Souls More by Guy Adams

Author:Guy Adams [Adams, Guy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Steampunk
ISBN: 9781781082881
Amazon: 178108288X
Publisher: Solaris
Published: 2014-12-29T11:00:00+00:00

6.

BILLY STOOD BACK to let the coach past.

“There they go,” he said to Elisabeth, “the powers that be.”

“Father barely slept for worrying about it,” she said. “He’s never liked responsibility. Leave him alone with his books and his inventions and he’s happy, force him to discuss things with other adults and all he really wants to do is crawl away and hide.”

“Well, I doubt today’s talks are going to mean much anyway. They’ll posture a little bit, then run back to make their reports and recommendations, all of which will be ignored, then we’ll have the President’s men down here.”

“At which point, the posturing will really begin.” She took his arm as they made their way towards the barrier. “Still, it could have been worse, we could be in England, then they’d have Cecil to deal with. He’d have taken one look at the place and resigned.”

“Cecil?”

“The Prime Minister.”

“Oh. Him.”

They’d reached the barrier by now. Billy withdrew his pocket watch. “Let’s make sure we’re synchronised.”

She held her own watch next to his, adjusting it slightly so that it matched. “Thirty-seven minutes past eleven,” she said.

“I’ll be back in a minute!” he said, and walked through the barrier.

“Probably not,” Elisabeth replied, “you never are.”

On the other side of the barrier, a few new faces were poking through the ruins left by the abandoned camp. Many of them from the Dominion of Circles.

“What’s this for?” one of them asked, recognising Billy as he drew closer. She was one of the Kirby Clutch, an extended family who seemed to share a group mind. Billy had been struck by the way they rarely spoke to one another, their unnaturally small heads twitching as they sat together, pooling their thoughts. It had been Biter that had explained the way of them.

“There’s hundreds of them,” he’d said, “dotted all over the Dominion. They just gather information. You want to know anything, ask a Kirby, they’ll set you straight.”

She was holding up a pickled pig’s foot, drying out and covered in dust. “Is it an offering?” she asked, “a prize to the fallen God?”

“If it is,” Billy replied, “it ain’t much of one.” Her head twitched, as if trying to translate his words into a meaningful answer. “It’s food,” he told her.

The head twitched again and she placed the pig’s foot in her mouth.

“No!” Billy laughed, “you don’t eat the whole thing, you’ll choke. It’ll taste disgusting anyway, it’s probably rancid from being left in the sun.”

She swallowed and smiled. “We like rancid pig’s feet. Where can we find more?”

He shook his head. “That you’ll have to ask Abernathy.”

A mortal had walked up to them, staring at the Kirby. He was middle-aged, his ginger beard twitching as he scrutinised the woman quite openly.

“You new here?” Billy asked him.

The man turned to look at him. “Come from Alliance,” he said, “see what’s what.”

“That’s great,” said Billy. “What’s the time?”

The man seemed confused by the question. “Time?”

“Yes. The time. What is it?”

The man pulled out his pocket watch. “A quarter of four.

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