Mechanical Hearts (Skeleton Key)

Mechanical Hearts (Skeleton Key) by Nicole Blanchard, Skeleton Key

Book: Mechanical Hearts (Skeleton Key) by Nicole Blanchard, Skeleton Key Read Free Book Online
Authors: Nicole Blanchard, Skeleton Key
ship or gadgets for the office. He used to have a shop in the city square, but my mother grew too ill to take care of herself and I was always gone, so he had to close his shop to stay home with her.”
    “I’m sorry to hear about your mom,” I said.
    Ezra waved it away. “Anyway, I had to find work after that.”
    “How old were you?” I didn’t particularly enjoy the fact that I could relate to him. I didn’t want or need anything to bind me to his world. Especially not when I had so much depending on me in my own.
    “Sixteen.”
    “That’s very young,” I said.
    He shrugged then winced when it jolted his head. “I took a job on one of the export ships. Each capsule manufactures different goods. There are agriculture capsules, fishing, poultry, coal, and so on. Our job was to transport goods from one capsule to another.”
    “That doesn’t sound so bad.”
    His eyes shutter closed again, and he seemed to relax into me. My hands shifted idly through his hair as I listened to his response. “It wasn’t; it was good work. A few years later, I had my daughter, you met her, to consider. Her mother died a few years before, and it was up to me to provide for her.”
    “I can understand that,” I said, before I even thought about the words. There was something about him that pulled me. I found myself wanting to give him parts of me without fully understanding why.
    I wondered how much I’d have to surrender to him before I realized it was too late.
    I shook my head to clear those thoughts and refocused on what he was saying.
    “About five years ago, the ship I was first mate on was attacked by a rogue ship. They weren’t common back then, but the few out there were vicious and bloodthirsty. They stole supplies to take to abandoned capsules like this one where they’d horde them for themselves.”
    The rustling of the leaves was no longer pleasant. The trees offered too many places for people to hide. “They aren’t— They don’t come here, do they?”
    My eyes still on the trees, I didn’t notice for a few minutes that he hadn’t responded. When I looked down, I found his eyes closed again. I gently shook him until he blinked up at me.
    “Probably best if you don’t fall asleep for a couple hours. Just to be sure.”
    “You mean to torture me today, don’t you?” He lifted a hand and twined a finger around a lock of hair that had fallen from my bun.
    “If that means keeping you alive. You still haven’t told me how you became a captain,” I prompted.
    “Well, when the rogue ship captured ours, they killed everyone who fought back except those who surrendered and agreed to serve. I couldn’t leave my daughter behind, even if it meant doing something I disagreed with, and I had my parents to worry about.”
    I didn’t know what to say in response, so I checked on the stew again and found it ready. It probably wouldn’t taste very good, but at least it was food.
    There were two cracked earthenware coffee cups along with the tin pot and I used them to serve up the steaming stew. Ezra managed to clamber up into a sitting position, and as he sipped the food, the color came back to his face.
    Once he devoured the first serving, he went back for seconds. “I should have hired you as a cook,” he said.
    I tasted a bite and found it to be bland, but he was already going back for another serving. “I think I’ll just stick to healing, if that’s okay with you.”
    We sat in silence as we finished off the pot of stew. All too soon, we were scraping the bottom of the dented tin pot.
    Ezra had enough energy to get to his feet and stretch upward into one of the pear trees and pick off a couple of the fruit for dessert.
    “What about you?” he said. “What about your world?”
    I shrugged as I bit into a piece of the juicy fruit. “I’m in school to become a doctor—healer. I live with my aunt Millie and Phoebe; she’s five, so about your daughter’s age.”
    “Your parents?” he asked.
    I

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