The Inexplicables (The Clockwork Century 4)

West turned his attention to whatever else was inside the wagon, shrugged, and said, “Sounds like a plan to me. ”

The gate swung open. Jay and Martin exited the tower, joined by the man who’d fetched them.

“Over here, boys. ” West waved them out to the carriage.

Angeline sat back on her heels and everyone else slumped over as well. Rector saw naked horror in Zeke’s eyes, and something he couldn’t quite pinpoint in Houjin’s. At a glance it looked like anger, but it might’ve been fear.

The princess said, “Back to the Vaults now. All of us. We wouldn’t have time left on these filters to do those men any damage—even if we weren’t outmanned and outgunned. ”

“We need to tell my mother,” Zeke said tightly.

“Your mother, and Mr. Swakhammer, and anybody else who might be helpful. ”

Houjin said, “I’ll tell Captain Cly. ”

Angeline looked hard at Rector and told him, “And you’ll take the news to Yaozu, because I’m not going to do it. Come on, back around this way. ” She led them around the rear of the tower, leading them in the hard, dark places between the bricks of the water reservoir and the stones of the wall.

“But we need to go downhill, not up!” Rector objected.

“I know, but we’ll avoid ’em better over here. The wall heads farther north, see? Cuts across the cemetery, like I said. And I know a secret or two inside that cemetery. ”

When they were far enough to move without drawing attention, they ran as best they could—huffing and puffing through the struggle of their filters and stumbling along in the wall’s shadow, where they could scarcely see the ground in front of them.

Once they were out of earshot, Houjin began asking questions. “Is there an underground entrance near here?”

The princess confirmed this without turning around or looking over her shoulder.

“Is it inside a mausoleum?”

“That’s a real big word,” she said. “What’s it mean?”

“It’s like a house for dead people. They had them in—”

“New Orleans,” she cut him off. “You saw a lot down in Louisiana, didn’t you?”

“Yes, ma’am. And a mausoleum is for burying dead people when you can’t put them in the ground. ”

“A house? For dead people?” She shook her head. “Sounds like a waste of time and trouble to me. No, we aren’t going to no house of the dead. ”

Instead, they were headed for the keeper’s shack—or that’s what Rector thought it must be. A tiny outbuilding at the edge of the cemetery gates, it was boarded up tight, but Angeline went around behind the thing and lifted a panel, then ushered all three boys through it. They scooted on their hands and knees, and just when Rector thought there was no way they’d all fit, he noticed the ladder.

He also noticed he was mere inches from bypassing the ladder altogether and toppling down to whatever unlit space waited below, so when Zeke crowded into him, urging him to make room, Rector socked him on the shoulder and said, “Watch it! I can’t go no farther. ”

“You can if you head down that ladder,” Angeline said from outside. “Go on, move it. ”

“But there’s no light!”

“There’s a light at the bottom, and I know where it is. Just stand by the ladder and don’t wander off. You’ll be fine. ”

She was right, he was sure, but that didn’t make it any easier to descend an unknown depth into an unknown space, navigating by the feel of the rungs under his hands and feet.

When he reached the bottom, there was almost no illumination at all. Even the square overhead told him nothing, except that Huey and Zeke were leaning over to see how he was doing.

“You two get down here, would you?” he griped. “Don’t leave me all by myself. I can’t see a goddamn thing. ”

Two minutes later, they were beside him—shivering and pretending they were cold, when they were only scared silly. They clung to the ladder and waited for Angeline, who joined them as fast as she could. She dropped down beside them, skipping the last four rungs. She struck a match, and within moments, had located not a lantern, but a stash of candles.

“Sorry. I’m not out at this end often. Nobody is. Seemed like a waste to leave a perfectly good lantern here where it’d wind up going to rust before anyone had a chance to use it. ” She passed the stubs around and said, “These’ll do for now. We’ll pick up lanterns when we get back to the tracks. ”