The Tale of Amaretto

Seventeenth Grain

In Which IronMen are Seen and the Guides True Natures are Revealed...

Amaretto smiled when Johanna turned her head. She looked down the street and then turned to the cabbie and spoke in her monotone voice. "Please turn down the next street and wait there please."

The cabbie tipped his hat and then climbed into the driver's seat and directed the horses to take the carriage downtown the next street to wait. Johanna then turned to Amaretto and grabbed her by arm and began to hustle her towards the alleyway.

"Hey! What are you doing?"

Johanna didn't speak to Amaretto, but instead spoke to Alice. "Iron men are on the way. We need to get out of the street."

Alice's face turned grave and then she carefully took Katherine's arm and began to direct her as well.

Amaretto tried to stop Johanna, but was unable to. "What are Iron Men?"

Alice looked aghast at what Amaretto said. "How do you not know what Iron men are?"

Katherine smoothly inserted a response, "We are actually from Indus. In Indus there are no Iron men out there."

Alice turned to Johanna and Johanna nodded her head. "They are at the other side of the Empire. They are a colony. That is outside of the Empire's purview. They don't use Iron men."

At this Alice nodded. "Iron men are the policing force here."

"Aren't they called 'Bobbies'?" Amaretto looked confused.

Alice responded. "No. They switched to a more... reliable policing force with the invention of the steam engine."

Amaretto looked at Katherine, who made a slight shrug of her shoulders. Amaretto allowed herself to be dragged along by Johanna before she asked, "What do you mean?"

At this Johanna put up a hand. "They are almost here."

Amaretto paused and looked out the mouth of the alley. What she saw next caused her to be slightly curious. A tall man, easily over six feet in stature, walked around the end of the lane and began walking forward at a rather stiff gait. This puzzled Amaretto until she saw the reason why. The man's boots were made of what appeared to be corrugated steel plates that had been bolted together.

From the man's back, there appeared to be a large lump that went up his spine, in a cylindrical fashion. The collar of the man's coat had been turned up as well, and from behind him seemed to rise a thin plume of smoke.

Amaretto stared in fascination at what was known as an Iron man. It looked like it was an automaton from a strange movie, like that one about the killer robot from the future, only this one was lower budget and had less of a killing instinct, or at least she hoped so.

Katherine put a hand to her mouth and the look of shock that crossed her face was a surprise to Amaretto as well. Amaretto leaned into her aunt and whispered, "Have you never seen this before?"

Katherine shook her head vehemently. "I have never seen the metals of man grafted so seamlessly with the flesh of mortals."

Amaretto rolled her eyes at the speech her aunt chose to use. Perhaps she was getting too far into the role as a Victorian aged lady.

"This is supposed to be a Steam punk era I thought you said," Amaretto reasoned.

Katherine hissed her response. "Steam punk maybe; but not a horror movie from the Victorian era!"

Amaretto suppressed a giggle and looked at the other end of the street where the IronMan was standing. "So if these IronMen are police, why is it that we are hiding from them?" Alice shied away from the question like a beggar to bathwater.

Katherine nodded her head and smiled. Amaretto felt like a detective, but at the same time, it was something that really bothered her. Alice looked a little flustered and then said, "We aren't hiding."

Amaretto looked at her with a severe look and then said, "You are hiding from the police, and that can only mean that you must have done something."

Johanna looked blankly at Amaretto and Amaretto felt her skin crawl for a moment, but not because of fear. The feeling felt more like a chill for things to come. She turned to Katherine and then spoke rather hurriedly. "If they are hiding from the police, that means they are trouble, and it's bad enough that you already have me doing something that I think is abhorrent."

At that Katherine tried to say something but Amaretto cut her off with a sharp wave of her hand. "I'm not finished yet. If Tempus... pardon me, the "Watchmaker"; put us with these people and they turn out to be criminals, then how does he expect me to do what it is that he asks?"

Katherine opened her mouth to say something and then a defeated look crossed her face. She looked to Alice and Johanna and said, "My niece brings up a good point. Unless we know why you are running, we cannot in good conscious stay with you. It would be bad for us as well."

Alice threw a startled glance at Johanna, whose face betrayed nothing in that instance. With a quick look around the corner Alice began to speak in a hushed tone. The conspiratorial tone worried Amaretto.

"You are correct in thinking that we have not been entirely honest with you. Johanna and I are well known throughout all of Londinium; the reason being that we are great practitioners in spiritual matters from the earthly coil."

Amaretto briefly glanced at Katherine with a confused expression. Katherine simply pointed lightly at Alice again to force Amaretto back to concentration.

"What do you mean by spiritual matters?" Amaretto could barely squeak out the voice she was trying to contain.

Johanna chose to answer the question. "We are speakers with the great beyond. We are able to communicate with the spirits of the dead and the angels of the lord of heavens and the deamons of the devil below."

Amaretto stared at Johanna in disbelief. It did not help that the woman had said it with no emotion at all. Alice chuckled slightly and then said, "While we can d it, we do not usually truck with deamons if we have to."

Alice looked around the corner again and then said, "We have been fighting as it were against the incursion that these IronMen mean."

Katherine looked concerned, but her voice was steel as she said, "You still haven't told us why you are hiding."

Johanna looked to Alice, who cringed a little under her hat and began to wring her hands. Johanna turned her blank stare back to Katherine and then said, "The current Chancellor recently passed a bill against all manner of Spiritualists in the Empire. We are to stop practicing, of be arrested and thrown in jail. If incarcerated, we could face fines and penalties, even execution."

It was now Amaretto's turn to look horrified. "They can't do that!"

Alice looked around the corner once more and said, "Sadly they can. The IronMan has stopped; he is making me rather nervous just standing out there."

Katherine took hold of Alice's shoulder and then said, "Stay on task here dear girl. What exactly happened to make you need to hide?"

Alice winced for a moment and then said, "The attack on the Chancellor recently... that was us."

Amaretto threw her hands up in the air. "Great! Common Criminals! We have been handed over to common criminals! We are going to get arrested and be thrown into jail and never be heard from again! This test run is shaping up into a great idea!"

Katherine tried to calm Amaretto down and then shushed her. "You don't have to yell it out loud!"

"Why in the hell not? Are you condoning that we hang out with criminals? Are you telling me that we are doing a good thing?"

"Amaretto control yourself! Watch your language while you are at it too!"

Amaretto narrowed her eyes and then said, "I don't care where we are, I think I have at this moment, deserved the right to cuss."

Johanna took this moment to say, "We didn't try to kill her though. We didn't attack her either. We were almost fifty feet away from her when we last saw the Chancellor."