Boneshaker (The Clockwork Century 1)

Zeke did his best to cooperate, but his best involved a collection of trips and stumbles on the way to whatever black place he was being drawn. A tiny creak peeped in the dark, and he felt a gust of cooler air brush across his shoulders.

A few more steps, another twisting of his feet against each other… and a door shut behind him. He was closed into a small room with a set of stairs and a pair of candles burning feebly above a railing.

His captor or rescuer—he didn’t know which—released him and allowed him to turn around.

Because Zeke wasn’t sure of his standing or peril, he hoped for the best and tried, “Thanks, sir. I think those guys were going to kill me!”

A pair of narrow brown eyes blinked slowly back at him. They were dark eyes, and calmly intelligent—but utterly unreadable. Their owner didn’t speak. He gazed down at the boy, for he was several inches taller than Zeke, with a long waist and long arms that folded across his chest. He was wearing what looked to Zeke like pajamas, but they were clean and unwrinkled, and whiter than anything that Zeke had yet seen inside the city walls.

And because the man had not yet said anything, Zeke mumbled, “They were going to kill me, weren’t they? And you… you’re not, are you?”

“What is your name?” the man asked, with only the faintest trace of a foreign accent.

“That’s a popular question today,” Zeke said, and then, because he was trapped in the semidark with this strange, strong man, he added, “It’s Zeke. Zeke Wilkes. I’m not trying to make any trouble. I just wanted to get out of the city. My mask is clogging up, and I don’t think I can last down here much longer. Can… can you help me?”

Again there was a protracted pause. Then the man said, “I can help you, yes. Come with me, Zeke Wilkes. I believe I know someone who would like to meet you. ”

“Me? Why me?”

“Because of your parents. ”

Zeke held still and tried to keep the pounding of his heart down to a dull roar. “What about them?” he asked. “I’m not here to make trouble or nothing. I was just looking for… I just wanted… Look. I know that my dad made problems and that he’s not exactly a local hero or anything, but—”

“You might be surprised,” the man said lightly. “This way, Zeke. ” He indicated the stairs and the corridor at the bottom.

Zeke followed him on legs that shook from exhaustion, injury, and fear. “What does that mean? I might be surprised? Who are you—and did you know my father?”

“I am Yaozu, and I did not know a man named Leviticus Blue. But I know a Dr. Minnericht who can, I am sure, tell you quite a lot. ” He checked over his shoulder, looking to meet Zeke’s eyes.

“What makes you think I want to ask him anything?”

Yaozu said, “You are a young man of a certain age. In my experience, young men of a certain age begin to question the world, and what they’ve been told about it. I think that you will find our strange doctor to be a most… interesting resource in your search. ”

“I’ve heard about him,” Zeke said carefully.

“How long have you been down here?” Yaozu asked, turning a corner and stopping at a large, misshapen door surrounded by flaps and seals. He lifted a latch and pulled it hard, and the door retreated from its frame with a whooshing gasp.

“I don’t know. Not long. A day. Two days,” he guessed, though it felt like a week.

Yaozu held the door open and gestured for Zeke to walk through it. There was light on the other side of it, so he left the candle in a cranny on the wall. “If you’d been here longer than an hour, I would assume that you’ve heard of our doctor. ”

Zeke stepped against a distinct and pulsing breeze, and once he was inside the next room, Yaozu followed him.

“So he’s important, huh?”

“Very important, yes,” the man said, but he sounded blandly unimpressed.

“And you work for him?”

The man didn’t answer immediately. But when he did, he said, “You could say that. We are partners, in a way. He is a great man with electricity, and mechanisms, and steam. ”

“And what about you?” Zeke asked.

“Me?” He made a little noise that might’ve been a “hmm” or might’ve been an “oh. ” He said, “I’m a businessman, of a sort. It is my business to maintain peace and order so that the doctor can work on his projects. ” And immediately he changed the subject. “One more door, and then you may remove your mask. These are sealed, you understand. The clean air we catch, we must keep. ”

“Sure. ” Zeke watched as another door was dragged open against its flaps. On the other side was not another corridor, but a small room filled with lamps that lit all four corners. He said, “So you’re a lawman down here? Something like that?”

“Something like that. ”