Steam Legion (11 page)

Damnation to troublesome Emperors and their foolish ideas of what is important.

****

Dyna awoke a few hours after she’d been put to bed, stretching comfortably and almost deciding not to awake, until she was struck by the sheer oddity of feeling so comfortable in the first place.

Her eyes opened, darting around the room in confusion.

My rooms at the Library. I…I remember.
She sat up slowly, letting the linen drop from her body. She winced and rubbed her shoulders and breasts where her skin had been pinched by the armor and paused when she felt that she’d been oiled down and powdered.

She cast the linens aside, rising from the bed, and walked across the room to the mirror. Bruises were beginning to show, both where the men had grabbed her and where the armor had pinched and squeezed her flesh. She gauged her fitness, however, and was pleased with the state of things given the events of the night before.

For a woman who just lived through two battles and a fight for your life, you look to be in excellent shape.

She brushed her black hair back, dark eyes examining her face and flesh. She had never felt so weak, or so strong, as the previous night. When the damned fools assaulted her, there had been no fear, just the cold rage that they would
dare
lay a hand on her body.

Their deaths meant less than nothing to her; she felt neither sorrow for them nor true victory in their defeat. They were thugs, untrained and unworthy. There was nothing to be prideful of in that brawl.

What came after, those were things she felt some real pride in. The defeat of a superior force, even if only in terms of numbers, with military might was something that sang to her blood. Something her ancestors could be proud of, something she could bring with her to the fields to show them when her time came.

Afterward, however…afterward.

She closed her eyes, turning away from the mirror. When it was all over, that feeling of power and strength had bled away as if her throat had been cut. Dyna was surprised in some ways that she had made the walk all the way back to the Library without collapsing. Afterward, despite being barely able to walk, she couldn’t even sit still let alone contemplate sleep.

She’d worked for hours before Cassius arrived, almost to the point where she was asleep standing on her two traitorously weak feet. She couldn’t remember anything of what she was working on when he came in, nor of returning to her rooms. Dyna was pretty certain she hadn’t undressed herself, however, because while she knew the benefit of oil and powder, she had never in her life used perfumed powder on her body.

Dyna shrugged into a chiton, the common dress of a noblewoman, tying it only loosely before she pulled open the doors to her rooms.

The two large men outside turned to look at her, and one stepped forward and bowed his head.

“My Lady, what are your needs?”

She paused, thinking about that for a moment. Finally she nodded. “Food. Who put me to bed last night?”

“Via, my Lady.”

“Have her bring it, if she is available.”

“It will be done.”

She didn’t have to wait long. Via arrived within minutes with a tray of light fruits and cereal for her.

“You were expecting a call?” Dyna asked, sitting patiently as Via set the tray in front of her, carefully laying the food and utensils out.

“Yes, My lady,” Via said. “I asked to be alerted when you awoke.”

“Oh?”

The young girl blushed at Dyna’s intense stare. “Yes, my Lady. I expected you would need…preparation for the day.”

Dyna took a deep breath. “I believe you prepared me quite well last night. I’ve rarely woken quite as comfortable, thank you.”

“It is nothing.” Via cast her eyes down. “But begging the Lady’s pardon, if you’re going to wear armor regularly, you should have it fitted.”

Dyna involuntarily cast her eyes to the armor resting on a chair near her bed, a feeling of longing filling her. She shook her head sadly. “I doubt I’ll have the occasion to wear it again, Via.”

“If you say so, my Lady,” Via replied, not contradicting her, but her tone was clearly doubtful.

Dyna sighed and began to eat, not willing to get into an argument with the young slave at this time. It just seemed silly to fight with someone who by rights couldn’t fight back, and pointless as well since she knew that her days leading men into battle were most certainly at an end.

She was glad to have tasted it once, but Dyna feared that knowing the call of blood the way her ancestors had would come to drive her to madness by its absence.

Via, for her part, picked up a hair comb, took a seat behind Dyna, and began to wordlessly brush out her hair.

“What are you doing? I am quite capable of caring for my own appearance.” Dyna pulled away, mildly annoyed.

“My Lady should be eating now,” Via said, shifting so she could continue. “And it is not your capacity I question, but your opportunity. Centurion Cassius has sent word that he will be by today. Master Heron wishes to see you at your earliest convenience…”

Dyna started to rise. “Why didn’t you say so earlier? I’ll go immediately—”

“My Lady will eat” —Via pulled her back down by her shoulders— “while I see to your preparations. Master Heron expects you to see him refreshed, hale, and likely prepared to work. You will be none of those things, for long at least, if you do not replenish yourself.”

Dyna sighed, sullenly popping a slice of fruit into her mouth and chewing before she half turned to Via. “Which of us is the slave here again, if you’d be so kind as to remind me?”

Via smiled beatifically, having returned to brushing out Dyna’s hair.

“We are all slaves to our Masters, my Lady. Some of us are merely more aware of it than others.”

****

Dyna entered the private workshop of Master Heron a little hesitantly. Via had insisted on dressing her, though where this sudden insistence was coming from Dyna was uncertain. She was bedecked in a rather unlikely peplos that made her feel like some Grecian doll from Athens. It was not a feeling she enjoyed, comparing herself however distantly to the hypocrites from that city.

Heron looked up as she entered, beckoning her closer while unabashedly staring. Dyna rolled her eyes, but didn’t mind. As she’d told him, she held the Master in the highest esteem and considered his mind to be far and above the most attractive thing in all the Empire.

Besides which, she was quite aware that his health severely limited his potential for action and would hardly begrudge the man his fantasies.

“You wanted to see me, Master Heron?”

“Yes, Dyna, child.” He smiled. “But first, may I say that you look spectacularly lovely this morning. Radiant even.”

Dyna wasn’t one to blush, but she could feel her face heat at his words and knew that it was because her appearance was certainly atypical. Via had, for whatever reasons, gone all out, finishing what she had begun when Dyna fell asleep in the bath the night before, cheerfully applying all the general preparations that a Lady of high status might normally apply. Dyna had woken too relaxed, for some odd reason, and for once permitted the slave her way.

Normally she was one to wear a simple tunic and leggings, certainly not the flowing peplos, so if Heron wanted to enjoy the sight of her body in a Lady’s accoutrements, well, she would not be the one to tell him he couldn’t.

“Thank you,” she said with a smile as she turned from the sun in the hopes that the shadow would hide her blush.

Heron just chuckled, clearly amused, but he wouldn’t be the man he was if he let himself be sidetracked for long. He turned back to his work, beckoning Dyna closer. She saw that he had lit the brazier under his aeliopile, causing the small device to spin merrily as it spewed steam from twin ports.

“My greatest invention,” he said looking at the whirling toy. “Not that anyone would believe it.”

Dyna frowned, returning her gaze to the spinning toy. For that was what it was, after all, just a toy for the amusement of rich men and their guests. It certainly spun quickly, but without enough power to do work of any value. “I don’t understand.”

“Now, now, Dyna, child,” Heron chided her. “You have seen the steam cannons in use. You
know
the power of steam.”

Dyna nodded slowly. “Yes, but this is not the same.”

“On the contrary, Dyna,” he said seriously. “It is precisely the same. The only difference between this aeliopile and one of the steam cannons is the duration of the power. The cannon releases it in a single instant, this toy does so over a period of time. So, tell me, Dyna, child…what prevents us from constructing a device that controls the power of the cannon and turns it into a source of work?”

“I…I don’t know.” Dyna blinked, uncertain. She had never thought about that sort of application. Her work had largely been to leverage Master Heron’s work for its military applications.

“Come.” He smiled, leading her to the back of his workshop, to a door that was always barred.

She’d never been inside. It was Master Heron’s most private area beyond even his bed chambers. Dyna had, in fact, never seen the door unbarred as it was now. She followed in silence, not wanting to ruin her chance to see what Heron considered so important that he felt the need to lock it away from the world.

Heron lit a brazier near the door, then stepped back. Dyna was puzzled, uncertain by his actions, but kept her questions for the moment. Heron just smiled at her, then waved his hand at the massive doors.

“Open,” he said.

The doors groaned then slowly swung open of their own accord. Dyna stared, shocked for a moment, but she had been working with Heron long enough to detect the undercurrent of amusement in his posture, tone, and eyes. Slowly, she looked away from the doors to the lit brazier, eyes narrowing as she pondered the flames.

“Very good, my dear,” Heron chuckled. “A few more moments and I would wager that you could devise a similar invention yourself, but I will save you the time. The flames are heating water in a large tank below the doors, causing it to push some of itself out into another tank. As the second tank fills, the weight opens the doors.”

“Ingenious,” she whispered.

“I built this for the temple of Athena in Athens,” he told her with a small smile. “Of course, they
requested
very strongly that I not reveal the inner workings.”

Dyna snorted. “Clearly. I had heard tales. However, I have never had the desire to set foot in Athens, so I hadn’t considered the workings of the doors.”

He shrugged, gesturing inside as he waited for her to step across the threshold before following her.

“I believe that I have proven that steam can be harnessed to do work?”

“Again,” she said, bowing her head, “I am humbled by your genius, Master Heron.”

“As I am I by that of those who came before me,” he told her. “Come here, though. I will show you…true genius.”

He led her through the immense room, passing by various projects just sitting there, accumulating dust. Heron came a stop by something that she recognized, or thought she did.

“One of your fire pumps?” she asked.

“Close, similar principals, my dear…entirely different goal, however,” he said as he took his torch and touched it to a brazier inset in one of the pumps on the large cart.

It burned brightly, almost instantly, telling her that it used an oil fuel. They waited for the flames to heat the water within the large pumps, for something to happen. Heron was watching Dyna, not the machine, causing her to split her time between him and the device itself.

So it was that she almost missed it when the cart creaked in place and began to slowly move.

Dyna’s eyes widened, her attention locking on the cart as if a moth drawn to flame. The cart was a large one; she knew that it would take two strong horses to pull it, four would be preferable. The water weight would be massive, the weight of the brass and other materials very nearly as impressive, and yet here the whole cart was moving forward without any sign of wires or trickery.

“Step in front of it,” Heron suggested.

She looked at him, eyes wide.

“It is still moving slowly. Try to hold it in place.”

Dyna hesitated but stepped in front of the cart and put a hand to it. It didn’t so much as pause at her pressure, causing her to lean her weight into it. She could feel it continue to push against her, her sandals sliding against the smooth stone floor.

It was pushing her back, still accelerating slowly. Dyna let go and stepped out of the way, stunned by what she had just experienced.

“Master Heron,” she whispered. “You are…you are a God.”

He chuckled. “Hardly that, Dyna, child. Merely a talented logician who has the works of many other titans of the past from which to base his theories.”

Dyna didn’t respond. Her eyes were glued to the cart as it continued on its path until it came into contact with the wall with a deep thud that shook dust from the stone and sent shudders through the entire building. The cart stopped and the wall held, but she noticed that the wheels were still inexorably turning and grinding against the stone floor.

“How fast does it move?”

Heron shrugged. “Faster than a man may walk, not so fast as he could run.”

“And can it travel far?”

“We only tested it over short runs,” he admitted. “However, with the gear-changing system I devised…it should be able to travel so long as you have fuel for the fire and water for the tanks. You can guide it with brakes against the wheels and stop it by cutting the ropes to the wheels if you must stop quickly.”

“Why is this not available? The value to the Legion is…incalculable.”

Heron shrugged again. “I brought the system to the Emperor’s attention some years ago and described to him what I saw for it. The power to build roads, lift immense weights, and so forth.”

“And?”

“And he took me aside and told me that he wanted me to forget about my grand designs,” Heron smiled sadly.

“But why?” Dyna was confused. “We could do so much with this.”

“That is what I thought,” Heron admitted. “And so I asked him exactly that.”