Read Online Cold Copper: The Age of Steam by Devon Monk - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Devon Monk
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said. “Cadoc seems set and ready to see this promise through to fulfilling it, and so does Bryn.”
“And you?” she asked. “Are you going to search for the children? If they’re lost…like little Elbert Gregor… ?”
“Yes.” Cedar resisted the urge to look over his shoulder at her. “Even if they aren’t lost like little Elbert Gregor.”
“Good,” Mae said over the shush of crawling beneath blankets. “I had hoped you would.”
Elbert Gregor had been kidnapped for a man named Shard LeFel by the Strange creature known as Mr. Shunt. Cedar had killed Mr. Shunt, had felt him fall apart into bits and pieces of bone and bolt and spring. There was no chance that monster was still alive.
But there were other Strange, other monsters. The wind was thick with them. Likely, the town was thick with them. And Strange were known to steal children, though he’d never heard of a hundred missing at once.
As long as there were no bodies available for the Strange to wear, whether the freshly dead or the rare Strange-worked creatures built of cog and sinew, like Mr. Shunt, the Strange couldn’t directly harm anyone. They were spirits—bogeys and ghouls—reduced to haunting the living world and desperately looking for ways to become a part of it.
No, it made the most sense that the children of Des Moines had been taken for more common evils by more common men—to work mills and factories in faraway cities, or to do some other labor in this quickly growing land.
With the railway connecting coast to coast and all lines pointing to Des Moines, it would be fairly simple to send a large group of children off to the far corners of the country. But a child-smuggling business that large had to have a reason to pull so many from one place alone.
Cedar lay down and dragged a thick, well-patched quilt that smelledof pine up to his chin. He’d left his boots on and laid his hat on the floor next to him. Wil settled down too, groaning as he stretched out.
Cedar dropped one arm out to the side, and dug his fingers into Wil’s fur. They’d track the children tomorrow. He’d have most of the day to do so. He’d look for the Holder too.
And when the moon rose full, Cedar would ask Mae to make sure he was locked up, in the wagon or in a cellar.
The Pawnee curse turned him into a beast like his brother, but he had far less control over the animal instincts. When he changed, all he wanted, with every pump of his heart, was to kill the Strange. This tired, in this unknown city, he would be too likely to kill at random, kill people in his rage to destroy the Strange. He didn’t want to lose control near a city this size with Strange so near. He didn’t want innocent deaths on his hands.
He’d spilled enough innocent blood. With that grim thought, sleep finally claimed him.
Cedar startled awake as the Madder brothers tromped into the room. They each took a blanket and made beds, rolling up without removing coat or gloves, and snoring nearly as soon as they hit the floor. From the rhythm of breathing in the room, he knew Mae and Miss Dupuis slept through their arrival.
Wil twitched his ears. Other than opening his eyes into slits for a moment, he didn’t move.
Cedar closed his eyes again, but sleep shifted further from his reach. He rolled over, which didn’t do anything but make his back hurt, so he turned the rest of the way, facing the stove, the women, and the window, with Wil and the door behind him.
He was exhausted, mostly dry and warm. Why couldn’t he sleep?
The skitter and odd scratch of tiny footsteps brought him awake, all of his senses open.
Something was in the room with them. Something was moving with uneven clawed feet toward the women. Toward Mae.
Cedar reached to the floor for his gun. He tugged it from the holster, then sat, aiming at the noise.
The noise stopped. It took a moment, no more than that, for Cedar’s eyes to adjust to the darkness.
Then he saw it.
A creature with too much head for
“And you?” she asked. “Are you going to search for the children? If they’re lost…like little Elbert Gregor… ?”
“Yes.” Cedar resisted the urge to look over his shoulder at her. “Even if they aren’t lost like little Elbert Gregor.”
“Good,” Mae said over the shush of crawling beneath blankets. “I had hoped you would.”
Elbert Gregor had been kidnapped for a man named Shard LeFel by the Strange creature known as Mr. Shunt. Cedar had killed Mr. Shunt, had felt him fall apart into bits and pieces of bone and bolt and spring. There was no chance that monster was still alive.
But there were other Strange, other monsters. The wind was thick with them. Likely, the town was thick with them. And Strange were known to steal children, though he’d never heard of a hundred missing at once.
As long as there were no bodies available for the Strange to wear, whether the freshly dead or the rare Strange-worked creatures built of cog and sinew, like Mr. Shunt, the Strange couldn’t directly harm anyone. They were spirits—bogeys and ghouls—reduced to haunting the living world and desperately looking for ways to become a part of it.
No, it made the most sense that the children of Des Moines had been taken for more common evils by more common men—to work mills and factories in faraway cities, or to do some other labor in this quickly growing land.
With the railway connecting coast to coast and all lines pointing to Des Moines, it would be fairly simple to send a large group of children off to the far corners of the country. But a child-smuggling business that large had to have a reason to pull so many from one place alone.
Cedar lay down and dragged a thick, well-patched quilt that smelledof pine up to his chin. He’d left his boots on and laid his hat on the floor next to him. Wil settled down too, groaning as he stretched out.
Cedar dropped one arm out to the side, and dug his fingers into Wil’s fur. They’d track the children tomorrow. He’d have most of the day to do so. He’d look for the Holder too.
And when the moon rose full, Cedar would ask Mae to make sure he was locked up, in the wagon or in a cellar.
The Pawnee curse turned him into a beast like his brother, but he had far less control over the animal instincts. When he changed, all he wanted, with every pump of his heart, was to kill the Strange. This tired, in this unknown city, he would be too likely to kill at random, kill people in his rage to destroy the Strange. He didn’t want to lose control near a city this size with Strange so near. He didn’t want innocent deaths on his hands.
He’d spilled enough innocent blood. With that grim thought, sleep finally claimed him.
Cedar startled awake as the Madder brothers tromped into the room. They each took a blanket and made beds, rolling up without removing coat or gloves, and snoring nearly as soon as they hit the floor. From the rhythm of breathing in the room, he knew Mae and Miss Dupuis slept through their arrival.
Wil twitched his ears. Other than opening his eyes into slits for a moment, he didn’t move.
Cedar closed his eyes again, but sleep shifted further from his reach. He rolled over, which didn’t do anything but make his back hurt, so he turned the rest of the way, facing the stove, the women, and the window, with Wil and the door behind him.
He was exhausted, mostly dry and warm. Why couldn’t he sleep?
The skitter and odd scratch of tiny footsteps brought him awake, all of his senses open.
Something was in the room with them. Something was moving with uneven clawed feet toward the women. Toward Mae.
Cedar reached to the floor for his gun. He tugged it from the holster, then sat, aiming at the noise.
The noise stopped. It took a moment, no more than that, for Cedar’s eyes to adjust to the darkness.
Then he saw it.
A creature with too much head for
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