The Inexplicables (The Clockwork Century 4)

“That’s him. Hey, look—we can climb up on the piano. ”

“Will it hold us?”

Zeke shrugged. “I don’t see why not. ”

They squeezed over to the instrument and shut the cover over the keys, then scaled the tall player all the way to the top. They could barely do so without knocking their heads on the ceiling, but they were pleased with themselves all the same.

Now they could see everything, and everyone.

Houjin slipped inside the door and looked around, scanning the room. He spied Zeke and Rector quickly and waved at them, but he opted not to wrestle through the crowd to join them, or further test the integrity of the piano lid. Instead, he stuck close to Captain Cly.

Briar Wilkes hovered close to the bar’s edge. She wore her full regalia, as Rector had come to think of it—her father’s old badge and hat, and a belt buckle with the zigzag initials MW.

The muttering in the room rose and fell in a curious wave.

Angeline monitored it, and watched the door. When she was confident that everyone important was in attendance, she glanced at Lucy O’Gunning, who nodded. The princess took this as permission to climb to her feet on the bar, high enough above the population that she could be seen and heard by everyone.

“Ladies, gentlemen, and other assorted persons whose quality I am not prepared to judge…” she began. She delivered this line with a smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes—and it brought only a smattering of nervous laughter. “We have a problem. ”

Several of the Chinese men turned to one another and whispered. Angeline saw them and got an idea. “Huey? Where are you, sweetheart? I don’t see you. ”

He raised his hand.

“Good, good. Would you help me out? Come on up and translate for me. I might be talking too fast, and English isn’t my first tongue anyway. ”

Houjin did as she asked and came to sit beside her on the bar, urging the Chinese men to come closer so he wouldn’t have to shout.

Thusly reconfigured, Angeline went on, with Houjin’s translation trailing along behind her. “As some of you have heard … we’ve got a hole in the wall, and it’s letting things out. It’s letting things in, too. Neither of them things is any good. Worse yet, the hole didn’t just happen: Somebody made it, on purpose. ”

She paused to let Houjin catch up, and took a breath to start again.

It caught in her throat as the door to Maynard’s opened and Yaozu stepped inside, calm as you please. He held a mask in one hand and a lantern in the other. He set both beside the door, and stepped aside to close the door. He did not interrupt or do anything alarming, just folded his arms and turned his attention to Angeline.

The moment froze in place. Rector thought you could’ve heard a feather fall in the silence.

Angeline broke the spell by clearing her throat, looking away from Yaozu, and returning her attention to the rest of the room.

“Up at the north end of the city, at the edge of the park near the hill’s natural peak, the wall’s been broken open. Everything about it looks like dynamite. And we’ve seen the men what done it. Red, where you at?” she asked, scanning the room and seeing him atop the piano.

Rector gestured at his own chest. “Me?”

“Everybody clear a path. I want him to come here and testify. ”

Rector could feel himself blushing, and felt dumb for it—which only made him blush harder. He descended the piano and weaved through the crowd, stopping at Angeline’s feet.

“Well? Get up here, why don’t you?”

She extended a hand and pulled him up. He felt highly conspicuous, standing there beside her. Everyone in the room was looking at him now, and he didn’t like it. Many of the people in the room hadn’t set eyes on Rector yet, and a murmur rose up, trickled around the room, and died under Miss Angeline’s glare.

She patted Rector on the shoulder and introduced him. “Folks, this here is Rector Sherman. Young Rector joined us a week ago, and he had a hard time of it at first. ”

From somewhere in the audience, someone asked, “Is that the kid who fell down the chuckhole?”

“Yes, this is the kid who fell down the chuckhole. ”

Rector’s freckles were on fire.

“He was chased down that chuckhole, though—and if you don’t believe him, and you don’t believe me, you can believe Houjin over here. He saw the whole thing, and he’ll vouch for it. But that’s not what we’re here to discuss. Not exactly, though I’ll likely come back around to it. ” She nodded down at Huey, who caught up in his translating duties, then nodded back.