The White City (28 page)

“Yes, I know,” Jolie answered. “They cannot escape the Darkness. I tried to tell them this, but they would not listen to me.” She took a sharp breath. “I feel I am no longer one of them, Ray. I do not know where I belong, but I fear it is not with my
sirmoeurs
.” Her voice grew quieter. “But what will this matter soon?”

Ray’s thought of Buck’s confession. If they were to defeat the Gog, and if all went as planned, wouldn’t Jolie rather know who Buck was to her? But he had promised Buck. Ray bit his lip.

“Let us speak no more of this, Ray,” she said, resting her head against his shoulder. “Please let us talk of better things.”

“What’s there to talk about?”

“Tell me again about your life in the city, before we met.”

Ray laughed. “You’ve heard all my stories.”

“Tell me again.”

That boy from long ago seemed to bear no relation to who Ray was now. But as Ray began talking—remembering stories of better times in the midst of all those past hardships—Jolie stayed close to him.

Ray woke to the sound of voices echoing through the coliseum. Jolie lifted her head from where it had rested against his chest.

“Buck!” Si’s voice rang out again.

Ray and Jolie approached the edge of the balcony. Morning sunlight glowed from the high windows above. Si was standing in the middle of the great floor below. Others were moving around adjacent booths. The Sioux family came out from their teepees at one side of the floor.

“What’s going on?” Ray called down to Si.

She spun around. “Where have you two been? We thought you’d disappeared too.”

Conker and Mister Lamprey came out onto the floor to Si’s side, and Conker called to them, “Is Buck with you?”

“No,” Ray said. “He was sleeping when I left—”

“How long ago was that?” Mister Lamprey asked.

“I don’t know. Hours ago.” Ray turned to Jolie, but she was leaving the booth, heading toward the stairs.

“He must be around,” Si said. “He couldn’t have gone far … not in his condition. He’s been half out of his mind, mumbling about liberty’s feet and such.”

Ray raced after Jolie, taking several of the stairs at a time.
They met Conker and Si in the lobby. Piglet stood anxiously with her back against the front doors.

“Didn’t you see him?” Mister Lamprey barked.

“Never came through here,” Piglet said. Ray did not have the heart to reveal that she had been sleeping at her post.

“Where would Buck have gone?” Jolie asked.

Conker looked around anxiously. “Maybe he went for food or water and passed out somewhere in the coliseum?”

Hobnob came in, followed by the freckle-faced young cowboy, Gilley, who had escorted them up to the storage room the night before. “Gilley and I looked everywhere,” Hobnob chirped with a nervous turn to his voice. “No sign of Buck anywhere.”

Other pirates were filling the lobby, and the Pirate Queen bashed her way through. Gilley looked up at her. “Didn’t see your man anywhere, ma’am. He must have left.”

“Well, he didn’t go out this door,” Piglet said. While she must have been harboring guilt at her lapse in duties, Ray agreed: Piglet had been sleeping against the door. Nobody could have gone out that way.

“Are there other exits?” Ray asked.

“They’re all locked and bolted,” Gilley said. “From the inside. Guess that doesn’t mean he couldn’t have gone out.”

“Still en’t explaining why ol’ Eustace would want to leave,” Hobnob murmured, scratching at his yellow mane.

“The Gog’s hall,” Ray said.

“What?” the Pirate Queen barked.

“He told me,” Ray said. “On the
Snapdragon
. He said he felt the draw of the Darkness. He’s dying from the exposure.
It’s the only thing that can save him.…” Ray’s eyes darted to Jolie, but he said no more.

“Why didn’t you tell us that?” the Pirate Queen said, rearing up in front of Ray.

“He said he couldn’t get there,” Ray explained. “He was too weak. I never thought he would actually try to return.”

“He’s probably not got control over it,” Conker said. “Not anymore.”

“We’ve got to stop him,” Si said, pulling Piglet away from the door and turning the handle. As the door swung wide, Buffalo Bill stood before her, his big, costumed frame filling the doorway.

“Where were you?” the Pirate Queen snapped. “You said to meet you for some cards!”

Cody’s eyes darkened, and he stepped hastily inside. He caught Si’s arm in a firm grasp. “Nobody leaves.”

Conker took a step forward, but Cody released Si’s arm as he pulled the door shut and turned to bolt it.

“We’ve got to find Eustace,” the Pirate Queen said.

Cody swung back to face them, his long blond hair scattering over his shoulders. His frowning gaze moved over the mob of pirates filling the lobby. “I said, no one leaves. Agents of the Gog are all over outside.”

“How did they find us?” Ray gasped.

Cody’s eyes moved from Ray to the Pirate Queen. “I’ve just met with Grevol. I’ve had to strike a bargain.”

T
HE
P
IRATE
Q
UEEN ROUNDED A PUNCH TO
B
UFFALO
B
ILL
,
but he caught her fist before it met his chin. The leather of his gloves creaked as he pushed her fist away. “Hear me out!”

“You betrayed us,” the Pirate Queen said, her face rising to a red brighter even than the flame of her long hair.

“He figured you were here,” Cody said. “And after the show, Mister Grevol sent one of his agents to bring me to meet with him. I had no choice!”

“Don’t you realize who he is?” Ray said.

“I do,” Cody said. “Jasper and Iron Tail have spoken with me about what you are doing … and about Mister Grevol.”

“So why are you helping the Gog?” Si snarled.

“I’m not helping him. I’m helping you!”

“By holding us prisoner?” Si said.

Cody gritted his teeth. “Look, if any of you leave, you’ll be captured by those agents waiting out there.”

“Why doesn’t he just raid the place now and take us all?” Conker asked.

“Because he knows he already has you trapped,” Cody said. “He ordered me to hold you in here until this other Rambler comes back. Someone he’s been hunting but hasn’t been able to capture. A man named Joe Nelson—”

“We’ve got to get out of here!” Si said. “We’ve got to find Nel!”

Jolie pulled Ray’s arm, urging him back through the doorway to the lobby. He could see as well that things might turn worse at any moment. Conker was growing furious, and the Pirate Queen had her hand beneath her coat. She looked wild and dangerous, and Ray imagined that she would be the type of animal that would chew through her own leg rather than stay caught in a trap. But Cody, despite his flamboyant exterior, looked like the sort who had handled worse than her.

With his jaw set, Cody stood his ground before the door as Conker pointed over his shoulder and shouted, “We can fight our way through those agents out there!”

“And go where?” Cody said. “Grevol has an army at his disposal in that Hall of Progress. He showed me things … clockwork men and mechanized beasts … horrors you could never imagine.”

“We don’t have to imagine,” Si said.

“Then you should know,” Cody said. “You’d never get more than a few blocks before he would unleash them.”

“In broad daylight?” Ray shook his head. “With all the crowds of fairgoers around?”

Cody shrugged. “Believe me, I’m sure that’s something Mister Grevol would like to avoid. That’s probably why he’s waiting until tonight to come for you. There’s some important guests arriving for the Expo today. Some king or prime minister or somebody, and Grevol can’t have gunfights in the streets scaring off his dignitaries. But I’m sure if you all decide to run for it, he won’t think twice … he’ll send whatever horrors he’s got after you.”

Cody’s expression grew grim. “I’m not sure exactly who you all are or who this Rambler Nel is that Grevol’s after, but I know that you pose an enormous threat to him.” His eyes settled on Conker. “You’re John Henry’s son. You wield your father’s weapon. He would risk anything to stop you. He knows he has you cornered.”

“So what do we do?” Ray said, seeing Cody relax somewhat as he seemed to feel he had settled the mob before him.

“Before I was a showman,” Cody said, “I was a scout. I was a soldier out in the western territories. I fought in the Indian Wars. I was with Custer in Wyoming and led the first battle against the Sioux after his massacre. So I know war. And I know a losing fight.” He looked slowly around at the group. “This here’s a losing fight.”

“You’re expecting us to give ourselves up?” Conker growled.

“Of course not,” Cody said, throwing out his hands.

The Pirate Queen crossed her arms over her bandoleered chest. “Then what are you saying, Bill? Illuminate us.”

“I’m saying some fights you have to fight even if they are
losing ones.” Cody jabbed a finger at the Pirate Queen. “I’ll despise what you’ve brought down on me this morning, Lorene, until the day I leave this fine green earth. But I’ve never steered from a worthy fight.”

“You’ll help us?” Si asked, disbelief on her face.

Cody swept his hat from his head, pulled off his calfskin coat, and handed them both to Gilley. “I can’t speak for my men. Most of them are performers, nothing more. And the ones like Iron Tail and me who’ve seen war have a few too many years on us to be much good. But you can count on me, for what it’s worth.”

The anger had diffused, but as Ray looked at the others, he saw the expressions around him change as the reality of the situation sunk in. And as he began to speak, Ray realized he was voicing the worry in everyone else’s hearts.

“Even if we had your entire troupe, Mister Cody, even if we had an army, it wouldn’t matter,” Ray said. “A fight is pointless. We have to find Stacker Lee and get the Nine Pound Hammer from him. Grevol’s drawing us into a fight to keep us from doing what we need to do … to destroy his Machine.”

“And now we are trapped in here,” Jolie said. “We cannot even search for it.”

“Maybe we’re not,” Ray said.

“Not what?” Conker asked.

“Trapped,” Ray said. “I can cross. I can carry at least two at a time into the Gloaming. What if we crossed, here, into the Gloaming and traveled far enough to get away from the coliseum.”

“Would that work?” Conker asked.

“It should,” Ray said. “It’s tricky because travel in the Gloaming doesn’t exactly match with our world. It’s not like you walk twenty yards in the Gloaming, cross back, and then wind up twenty yards away from where you started.”

“But could it be enough to get us out of this coliseum?” Conker asked.

“There’s only one way to find out,” Ray said.

“Hold on,” Si said. “You won’t know where you’re crossing back. What if you wind up in Grevol’s parlor?”

Ray and Conker looked at each other. Conker said, “We’ll just have to hope we ain’t that unlucky.”

“Let me just try it,” Ray said. “Alone. If I make it, I’ll be able to follow the same path back here.”

“Okay,” Conker said. “Try it.”

Ray closed his eyes. The group filling Buffalo Bill’s lobby grew quiet, but Ray heard their breathing, their shifting feet, the noise of others in the coliseum moving about. He listened to the sounds outside—the clop of carriages, the shouts of vendors setting up along the street, the clank of the train on the elevated tracks. Ray let his focus shift from his surroundings to his body. He felt it lighten, grow smaller. He leaned forward and extended his arms, and as he waved his hands, he felt feathers catch on air.

He opened his eyes to see the others gathered around him gasping and watching with wide eyes as he took flight. He made a circle around the lobby, heading through the entranceway to the stadium, and then he crossed.

A bright light flashed, and before he felt himself fully through, he heard the roar of grinding machinery. He felt crushed on all sides, gears and churning parts tearing at his
feathers. Quickly Ray pulled back, back into the flashing lights, back through to the stadium.

He landed on the sawdust floor in human form.

Jolie was the first to reach him. “Ray!” she shouted.

He gasped for breath, feeling as if his lungs had been filled with fumes and smoke. He held his hands up, certain he’d find that his fingers had been torn apart. He was unhurt, but pain still shot through his body.

Conker put an arm around Ray’s shoulders to support him. “You okay? What happened?”

“The Machine,” Ray gasped. “I … almost crossed into the Machine. Too close … here.”

“But we’ve got to get to the Machine,” Conker said, “to destroy it! How are we going to get into the Gloaming?”

Ray took a few more breaths and then held on to Conker’s arm as he sat up. Si and the Pirate Queen and the others were surrounding him, looking down with anxious faces.

“The hall,” Ray said, standing slowly. “We’ve got to get into Grevol’s hall if we’re going to cross. Marisol and Redfeather saw the people infected by the Darkness going down some stairwell. That must be where we have to cross. Anywhere else and we risk winding up in the Gog’s Machine.”

Si frowned. “Which only does us any good if we can get out of here. We’re still trapped.”