Brotherhood of the Strange (Kingship, Tales from the Aether Book 1) by Michael Richie, Grant Wilson Page A

magnification monocle from her wardrobe. She then packed several more. Retrieving Degory’s letter and placing it in her clutch, she paused and then added a stack of five pound notes she kept in a cookie jar. All this luggage had to be placed in the lift out in the hall and taken to the ground floor. When this was accomplished, Cordelia was faced with two stark decisions. The first lay in a cage in her sleeping chambers. Her pet owl Oscar was waiting to be let out for his evening flight. It pained her to even consider leaving him behind. Though most owls would be more than capable of fending for themselves when left to their own devices, Oscar was special. Cordelia had rescued him after he had been hit by a steam carriage. The accident had cost the owl a wing which Cordelia had replaced with a clockwork equivalent. The owl was a loyal companion who relied upon Cordelia to maintain the technology, much like her uncle. Degory admitted he was increasingly uncomfortable around it since his own medical misfortunes. Knowing the bird caused him distress, she had placed the cage in her sleeping chambers away from his view. Though her uncle clearly had much on his mind upon arrival, if he noticed Oscar’s absence he never commented upon it. Though completely impractical in her current situation, her emotions got the best of her and Oscar’s cage was added to the pile of luggage on the curb outside. Her second choice was whether or not to arm herself with the plasmatic pistol her captor had on his person. Cordelia had never fired a weapon before, and was honestly unsure if she could bring herself to use it on another human being. In the end, she decided against it, rang for a full sized coach, and left her apartment behind. As her cab pulled away, Cordelia was feeling scared yet proud of how she had handled the situation. However, in her haste, she never noticed the black steam carriage parked in a nearby ally, nor felt the eyes watching her every move. Neither did she pay attention when it pulled out and followed her horse drawn cab into the cool London night.



Chapter X
     
    Orange and purple were such opposite colors that, when they converged, as they so often did in the brilliant conflagration of sunset, it made a harmony of such divergent beauty that Wingnut consistently found herself outside of the engine room during that time of day to fully soak in its beauty. She had done this often with her husband, Augustus, in what now seemed to be another life. These sunsets reminded her of him. She still remembered the feeling of his arms around her as they would take in the ambiance of the sun resting for the day. She missed him, even now, more than seven years later. The well-worn jumpsuit she always wore and a handful of tools on the belt were the only tangible reminders of him. The life and possessions they had acquired together in marriage had also been lost in the crash that had so abruptly taken him from her. Despite it all, it was times like these she still felt close to him, and the daily wearing of his jumpsuit had brought a closeness of memory neither time nor death could vanquish. Wingnut wiped away the tears that came less frequently lately. She didn’t want to ruin this special moment they were sharing.
    The Kingship had been heading south by southwest for the past two days. The storm they had descended through moved on and it looked as if the old adage of “Red sky at night, sailors delight” was holding true. She stood on the wingdeck, the open air deck of the vessel above the engine room, the highest part of the Kingship unless one wanted to climb to the top of the now lazily turning propellers or the rudders, both of which extended on pylons aft of the wingdeck. The metal hatch to the engine room was open, and the sound of boilers, furnaces, and working mechanics emanated from below. Wingnut breathed the warm air, and smelled deep earth for the first time in days as the purple and orange sunset blazed across the