Read Online Clockwork Heart: Clockwork Love, Book 1 by Heidi Cullinan - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Heidi Cullinan
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conspiring with an Austrian spy?
Félix sighed and went back to sifting through the wreckage on the floor. “There is no logic to the Austrians capturing Calais—well, unless the rumors are true and the Austrians and English are forming an alliance once more. But even so, they could never hold it. So if they are here, they want something specific. That someone has stolen my clockwork heart bodes ill. Though I am confused as to why it would take two months for that to happen, if it truly was the Austrians. There haven’t been any more burglaries since that night.”
“Why would the Austrians want the heart? They don’t have clockwork technology beyond the basics.”
Félix looked over his glasses at Cornelius. “The heart is worth learning clockwork for. Everyone has wanted it ever since I made it all those years ago. I should never have made it. All I wanted was to help the sick and dying. If only I’d been less naive, it might have occurred to me that even the noblest of inventions will be used by evil men for war.”
Cornelius paused. “War? How could the heart be a weapon?”
“Think it through, boy. What is a heart but a pump? An engine . The engine of our bodies, the host of our souls. What would a government do with a thousand clockwork hearts? Especially a government that needed to win a war? An entity with heaps and piles of broken men, who would do anything to have a heart making them strong and whole once more?”
Cornelius stared at Félix. “Oh, no. No. ”
“They would make an army. Every dying man would be an opportunity to keep a trained soldier. With some of the experimental human clockwork going on in Marseille, they might even be able to animate corpses. All they lack is the engine. My engine.” He shut his eyes and wiped his brow. Then he looked Cornelius dead in the eye. “You didn’t tell anyone about the heart, did you?”
The question was so direct, so unexpected, Cornelius stammered. “I— No, sir. I told no one.”
I only stole it and put it inside a stranger, who might be one of the men searching for it.
Félix patted his shoulder. “I’m sorry, but I had to ask. I shouldn’t have told you about the heart at all. I shouldn’t have kept it. I should have destroyed it years ago. Thank God I never gave in to greed and sold it to anyone. Any fool carrying that infernal device would be nothing more than a target.”
Cornelius’s hands shook as he resumed his tidying. “Could you make another? Do you remember how?”
“Not without the schematics, which burned in a fire shortly after I completed it. I suppose I could copy it if I had it in my hands. You could too, possibly. But any other tinker? They don’t have the skills, or the experience. This was my conceit. I thought only I could use it. It was safe to keep because of this. But what if I’m wrong? What if even now they are making others and creating a monstrous army?” He tossed a bit of filigree into Cornelius’s bucket. “I think I must concede they came for the heart and took it. Why else would they leave so much treasure behind?”
No, if they’d come for the heart, they’d have taken it and left. This carnage came from not finding the heart. Somewhere, a spy was reporting the failure, and receiving new commands. Would they kidnap Félix next? Cornelius?
Would they figure out the strange visitor upstairs carried the treasure they sought? Would they cut him open and take it while Cornelius looked on?
Would Johann, the suicidal soldier, present himself for surgery if he knew what he carried?
“When did this happen?” Cornelius asked. “When was the break-in?”
“Earlier, when we were all out. All the doors were wide open when I returned. You were still walking with your pirate. I would have suspected him right off, young man, but there’s no question he was with you the whole time. Maryann was clerking, but she’d closed the shop for lunch, and she swears up and down she set the locks. Louise was
Félix sighed and went back to sifting through the wreckage on the floor. “There is no logic to the Austrians capturing Calais—well, unless the rumors are true and the Austrians and English are forming an alliance once more. But even so, they could never hold it. So if they are here, they want something specific. That someone has stolen my clockwork heart bodes ill. Though I am confused as to why it would take two months for that to happen, if it truly was the Austrians. There haven’t been any more burglaries since that night.”
“Why would the Austrians want the heart? They don’t have clockwork technology beyond the basics.”
Félix looked over his glasses at Cornelius. “The heart is worth learning clockwork for. Everyone has wanted it ever since I made it all those years ago. I should never have made it. All I wanted was to help the sick and dying. If only I’d been less naive, it might have occurred to me that even the noblest of inventions will be used by evil men for war.”
Cornelius paused. “War? How could the heart be a weapon?”
“Think it through, boy. What is a heart but a pump? An engine . The engine of our bodies, the host of our souls. What would a government do with a thousand clockwork hearts? Especially a government that needed to win a war? An entity with heaps and piles of broken men, who would do anything to have a heart making them strong and whole once more?”
Cornelius stared at Félix. “Oh, no. No. ”
“They would make an army. Every dying man would be an opportunity to keep a trained soldier. With some of the experimental human clockwork going on in Marseille, they might even be able to animate corpses. All they lack is the engine. My engine.” He shut his eyes and wiped his brow. Then he looked Cornelius dead in the eye. “You didn’t tell anyone about the heart, did you?”
The question was so direct, so unexpected, Cornelius stammered. “I— No, sir. I told no one.”
I only stole it and put it inside a stranger, who might be one of the men searching for it.
Félix patted his shoulder. “I’m sorry, but I had to ask. I shouldn’t have told you about the heart at all. I shouldn’t have kept it. I should have destroyed it years ago. Thank God I never gave in to greed and sold it to anyone. Any fool carrying that infernal device would be nothing more than a target.”
Cornelius’s hands shook as he resumed his tidying. “Could you make another? Do you remember how?”
“Not without the schematics, which burned in a fire shortly after I completed it. I suppose I could copy it if I had it in my hands. You could too, possibly. But any other tinker? They don’t have the skills, or the experience. This was my conceit. I thought only I could use it. It was safe to keep because of this. But what if I’m wrong? What if even now they are making others and creating a monstrous army?” He tossed a bit of filigree into Cornelius’s bucket. “I think I must concede they came for the heart and took it. Why else would they leave so much treasure behind?”
No, if they’d come for the heart, they’d have taken it and left. This carnage came from not finding the heart. Somewhere, a spy was reporting the failure, and receiving new commands. Would they kidnap Félix next? Cornelius?
Would they figure out the strange visitor upstairs carried the treasure they sought? Would they cut him open and take it while Cornelius looked on?
Would Johann, the suicidal soldier, present himself for surgery if he knew what he carried?
“When did this happen?” Cornelius asked. “When was the break-in?”
“Earlier, when we were all out. All the doors were wide open when I returned. You were still walking with your pirate. I would have suspected him right off, young man, but there’s no question he was with you the whole time. Maryann was clerking, but she’d closed the shop for lunch, and she swears up and down she set the locks. Louise was
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