Clockwork Chaos Read Online Free Page A

future will leave His Majesty behind. I don’t intend to be left with him.”
    Shaking with anger, Moore addressed the Antelaunders, “Take them to the outbuilding by the pump and secure them there. We’ll decide what needs to be done after the Windram comes to tether.”
    “My father used to speak of you as a true visionary, Sante. I wonder if he couldn’t see past that to the madness,” Kassandra stated as one of their guards grasped her shoulder to spin her about.
    Moore turned his back on their party starting to walk off. “You father used to be part of my coterie. He used to be a believer, one of many. Disabuse yourself of the notion that I am doing this on my own, dear Kassandra. But your father, he never had the stamina to keep up with us. He was weak,” their captor threw over his shoulder and then marched off.
    The dilapidated shed was a poor windbreak and Cobham could feel the incessant gusts and hear them whistling through the cracks in the building. The three prisoners huddled about the small coal brazier in the shack’s center.
    “This morning I walked though the wreckage of an aircraft. Now I’m in the clutches of a mad man. I really can’t tell you how much I enjoy being along for the adventure, Kassandra. In the future can we possibly consider something a little bit less life-threatening?” Cobham said shoving his hands deep into the pockets of his parka, leaning closer to the brazier.
    “But isn’t it exciting?” she responded with a sly smile.
    Before he could frame a suitable response, Cobham found the items that he’d discovered inside the leviathan. He pulled the metal from his pocket, holding it up before the feeble light from the fire.
    “Can I see that, constable?” Sparrowknife asked. The airman turned the fragment over in his hands. “Well, there is the cladding we were looking for earlier. Where did you find it?”
    “Moore’s using it to line some of the rooms inside the leviathans.”
    “That is odd, but it does prove that Moore went back and removed the cladding and everything else from the iceberg,” Sparrowknife mused. He took the metal and tossed it into the brazier. Immediately, the small fire blazed up in a puff of flame. “Must be the paint. Southern Islanders and Mexateca sometimes use inferior paints on the exterior of their dirigibles.”
    “What I don’t understand is the whole reason for their involvement with the wreckage,” Kassandra said.
    “I think we can call it an experiment,” Cobham offered. “If I was to guess I would say that Sante made the discovery of the ambergris bomb some time ago. Once he was able to perfect it, he and his allies used it to kill all of the leviathans we’ve seen on the beach to acquire more ambergris. From there they needed to prove that it could be used as a weapon against aircraft.”
    “So the wreckage was from a test,” Sparrowknife interjected.
    “Yes, they tethered the dirigible to the iceberg. Then they dropped the bomb on it. That might be why there was nothing but the framework, they wouldn’t have wasted anything else. I suppose that since he is familiar with this area that Sante knew the iceberg would drift back toward Aurora. The Windram could be here to salvage the framework,” Cobham continued.
    “So now they have something with which to destroy dirigibles and airships, how perfectly awful,” Kassandra said shaking her head.
    Reaching for the other item, Cobham found that the ice covering the piece had melted soaking his handkerchief. Cobham thrust his hand closer to the fire and stared at what lay in his palm.
    Kassandra’s brow wrinkled as she poked at his hand. “Constable, wherever did you find a severed finger inside the leviathan?”
    Cobham was silent a moment considering the stacks that the finger had come from. “There were bodies inside the leviathan so frozen together I couldn’t tell what they were. I broke off a piece before Sante and his men found me. I wonder how many there are in