The Shadows of God (17 page)

“A word with you, Mr. Euler?”

“But of course, Mr. Franklin, if the ladies will forgive me.”

One of the ladies looked cross. “We will forgive
you,
Monsieur, but perhaps not your wizard friend.” Then her frown became a smile. “Unless his demonstration this evening is exceptionally amusing.”

“You will find it so, I hope,” Franklin replied. “And I will have Mr. Euler only for a hand or two. He has a condition, you see, that requires fresh air now and then, and one of its complications is a forgetfulness of that fact—so I must see to it.”

THE SHADOWS OF GOD

“Not contagious, I hope?”

“The only contagious thing in this room is admiration for you, milady,”

Franklin replied.

“You make a good courtier,” Euler remarked when they were out upon the terrace in front of the palace. “But then you were one once, weren’t you?”

“I had the training,” Franklin admitted, “and remember some of the lessons.”

“Well, you’ve taken me out of my little box to ask me some question again, haven’t you? Something so important you must ignore the fact that you do not trust me.”

“You’re a perceptive judge of character,” Franklin said. “That is exactly what I’ve come for.”

“Let’s hear it, then.”

“Tell me, did you know Sterne was a warlock?”

“I did when I saw him last night. I never knew the name before.”

“He knew yours.”

“Well, he is more in the know than I, surely. Is that your question?”

“No. It is this: How can I make him reveal himself?”

“You have no device for that?”

“I have a device that detects warlocks, but it proves nothing to the uninitiated

—a needle pointing like a compass makes no good demonstration. I need for his malakus to appear, for all to see him revealed for what he is.”

“Ah. Try to kill him, then.”

“At dinner? In front of everyone?”

THE SHADOWS OF GOD

“That’s what you want, yes?”

“Not exactly. What if I draw a pistol and nothing happens? Then I merely jeopardize what goodwill I have earned here.”

“If he is in serious danger of his life, his malakus will appear, with or without his consent. It is the only thing I can suggest.”

“But if, for instance, the guards notice my motion before he does — no. I cannot risk it.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help.”

Franklin nodded thoughtfully. “It will have to do, I suppose. There must be some way to make use of this. Thank you, Mr. Euler—you may return to your card game.”

“Back into my box, eh?”

“For now.”

When Euler was gone from sight, doubts returned. What if this were some sabotage, finally, on Euler’s part? An agreement with Sterne to make Franklin look not only idiotic but idiotic and murderous?

But there was one way. A dangerous way, but not as dangerous as standing up during the toasts with a gun. Not to him, anyway.

He had only an hour before his appointment with the king. With any luck, he could arrange it in that time, if he could bring himself to ask it.

* * *

shelves were cluttered, not with the rubbish Franklin feared, but with every sort of scientific apparatus imaginable. Cabinets burst to overflowing with vials and jars of chemicals.

A fine layer of dust covered everything.

“Will it do?” the king asked.

“Will it do? Your Majesty, I have never in my life seen a better-equipped laboratory, even when I was with Sir Isaac. Did you supervise its outfitting yourself?”

“As a matter of fact, I did,” he said proudly. “Before Paris fell I loaded almost the entire contents of the Academy of Sciences on wagons and sent them to the fleet I was gathering. I don’t have to tell you how many miracles it took to see it all here safe and sound.” His face fell a bit. “Now I know it would have been better to load the ship with provisions and other necessities of life. I did not know, then, how poorly our New World colonies had fared. It is an act of vanity for which I have not forgiven myself.”

“But, Sire, the answers to many of your troubles are here! I can build you a manna machine, for instance, to feed your hungry. In fact, I’m puzzled. I sent the Sieur de Bienville a manna machine years ago, as a token of friendship.”

“We had one, but it failed eventually. No one here had the skill to repair it. I was too proud to admit it to you English. Can you really make another?”

“In a few days, if you give me an assistant or two.”

“I would be most grateful.” He looked thoughtful for a moment. Franklin could almost see the scales in the king’s mind, weighing this against that. “I give you and your men the freedom of the palace and grounds. I give you the freedom of the laboratory, as well. I pray you do not abuse my hospitality.”

“I will not, I assure you, Majesty. But may I ask, does this mean — ”

“I have not yet decided to join your rebellion, Mr. Franklin. My reservations are still deep. Moreover, I hear things do not go well for the English colonies.”

THE SHADOWS OF GOD

“What have you heard, sir? My aetherschreiber was lost when the Coweta captured us.”

“I will make one available to you — one of our own Franklinned ones, if that will help. As to the other, Sterne tells me that your forces have been defeated, with only a few remaining outlaws in Indian country.”

Franklin waited for the rest of it, but the king seemed to have finished. He did not know, then, that that remainder was marching to New Paris, in hopes of a friendly reception. Or did he?

Either way, if he did not bring it up, Franklin certainly would not. This wasn’t the time to make explanations about the Junto, which could be seen pretty easily as a spy organization.

After a moment, the king did go on, however, in a slightly different vein.

“It may be that in the end you may realize that you must take refuge here —refuge I would willingly give you, I might add, whatever my cousin should request. That, if nothing else, I will promise you.”

That was a sort of opening, Franklin figured. “Sir, if that be the case—and I hope it is not, I will tell you, for if the struggle against James goes badly, it is bad for us all —and my welfare lies with Your Highness, I wonder if I might make a few suggestions?”

“Certainly.”

“Your defenses, Sire. I fear they are not strong enough should your cousin force the issue. You have heard, no doubt, of the submersible ships he brought to Carolina. I wonder, can you be assured that no such ships lie in your own harbor?”

“Oh, dear.”

“And the flying ships. You have no defense against them either, nor against the other demonic things they have contrived in Russia this past decade. I can help you with that.”

THE SHADOWS OF GOD

“You would do this?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. I believe what I say, you see. This is no small struggle between countries. It is a fight for the liberty and life of every-one. If the English colonies are defeated, it is a tragedy. But the fight must go on.”

The king frowned in irritation. “I have told you —”

“I understand, Your Majesty, that you do not yet consider this your fight. I know also that you do not have all the facts and that you are used to deception in those you treat with. I am willing to gamble that when the time comes—and it will come, Majesty—that this
will
become your fight. I want you to have the means to do it, that is all. If I’m wrong, you will still have gained, for there are foes aplenty around you. I understand you have had your differences with Cuba, Mexico, and Florida.”

The king nodded thoughtfully, but his eyes soon narrowed with suspicion.

“And if you find your own weapons turned against you? If I join my cousin in his conquest of the New World?”

“Sire, I have not known you long, but I will be impertinent enough to judge your character. When you see what it actually is that we are fighting, you will understand. You will agree with me. But—they will be your weapons, your defenses. Clearly you can do anything with them that you please.”

“Sterne has promised me mechanical men and airships. Will what you build me be better than that?”

“Remember always this, Sire. I was with Sir Isaac when he invented the talos, the template for those mechanical men you speak of. Surely you have heard the tale? By now it is famous.”

“How it turned on him?”

“Yes. The aid Sterne offers you is of a very powerful sort—and it cannot be trusted. The creatures that locomote his airships and automatons will not be loyal to you. They are not loyal to Sterne, or to King James, or even to the tsar THE SHADOWS OF GOD

of Russia. They are loyal to distant creatures in the aether, invisible masters who wish for nothing less than the extinction of humanity. If you would invite such into your very home, I can do nothing to stop you. But it would be foolish.”

Philippe paced across the laboratory. “They say,” he murmured, “that my uncle Louis XIV was possessed by a demon in his last years. He was blind, you know—and yet he could
see.
And he brought that
thing
down from heaven.”

He looked up. “I am not unaware of the creatures you speak of. The priests argue over the matter, but most of the Jesuits believe them to be demons. Is that your belief?”

“Yes. Or to be more precise, they are beings of great power who wish us harm.

I will leave it to theologians to decide where they are placed in God’s plan. For my part, I believe in a God who is not nearly so devious and fickle in His designs.”

The king fidgeted. “I don’t like this sort of talk. I don’t like it at all. But I must face it, I suppose. Still, though Sterne is somewhat boorish —and, forgive me, what Englishman is not? —I see no evidence that he leagues himself with the devil. Indeed, since he makes the same claim of you, I don’t know what to believe.” He rested his hand on a table, looking very old and very tired.

Franklin knew exactly how he felt.

“Well,” he said, “if Your Majesty will bear a change in subject, here is the demonstration I had in mind for the dinner crowd tonight. It is to do with the composition of the atmosphere. I think you will find it both instructive and amusing.”

The king brightened immediately, and his spirits continued to improve as they worked out the particulars. He became less like a king and more like a young boy, fascinated by the world. A little of it rubbed off on Franklin, and he found he was, at times, enjoying himself.

It was after the king was gone, and he straightening up, that he felt more than heard someone else enter the room.

Vasilisa stood in the doorway, wearing a gown of deepest violet.

THE SHADOWS OF GOD

“Hello, Benjamin. I understand you are making quite the impression around here.”

“Really? I was surprised, I admit, not to see you at dinner. You seem to have insinuated yourself into the machinery here as well. I’ve only yet to figure out just where—which treachery you’re involved in.”

“I was invited to dinner. I thought it best not to go. I will attend tonight, however. The king wishes me to see his demonstration.”

“You are friendly with the king?”

“Why not be blunt, Ben, as you seem bent on hurting me? I am not his mistress. He has two of those, both quite vicious. I have enemies enough here as it is.”

“Yes, and I have enough without acquiring yours.”

Finally, a small, vexed frown disturbed her composure. “I thought you wanted me to speak,” she said. “You said as much.”

“Speak, then.”

“It has to do with the dark engines.”

That caught his attention. It was the same phrase Euler had used. Of course, she might well have met with Euler in the last day, but either way, it was worth hearing more about this.

“Go on,” he said.

She smiled faintly. “Science has taken something of a different direction in Russia,” she explained. “An angelic direction, if you understand me. Almost all advances there have hinged on improving Sir Isaac’s use of the animal spirit, on giving the malakim material bodies.”

“So far you aren’t telling me anything I don’t know.”

THE SHADOWS OF GOD

“Now I will, I think. We have gone beyond Newton, Ben. We have invented a way for the malakim to become manifest—more than manifest, near omnipotent—in the world of matter. No more taloi made of metal and alchemical muscle, no more clumsy airships, no more fighting battles through human allies. They will take a hand directly, themselves. Do you see?”

His mouth felt dry. “Then why all this?” he asked quietly. “Why the underwater ships, the Pretender, Sterne—why all this farce?”

“Because we didn’t know we could do it, and because the malakim are divided.

Some forbid the use of the dark engines; some don’t even know about them.

Battles can be fought in the aether, too. Those who wish to exterminate our race must pick their moment. They must pretend to have the matter in hand with their armies and cannon and intrigues in human kingdoms. But, Ben, it will all be for naught if we can’t defeat the engines. All of it, I swear.”

And suddenly, in a cold light, he saw something on her face he understood perfectly. It was the face that looked out of the mirror at him when he remembered what he had done to the world, the face that knew itself responsible for millions of deaths.

And—the unfair part—she was weeping.

A weeping woman has a magnetism that few men even think to resist. Franklin was no better, and he found himself with a hand on her shoulder, gruffly trying to soothe.

The next moment, he found her in his arms.

It was a shock, how familiar it was. The scent of her hair was the same, the bones of her body, so delicate.

But he did not recognize this grip, this feeling of helplessness emanating from her. She had always been the confident one, the one in control. It had always been he who needed her. It felt good, this change in roles. It felt like such good revenge that he didn’t even want revenge anymore. No, he wanted…