Engines & Demons - The Undestined

Chapter 2ii

I'm dedicating this chapter to VMarybury in gratitude for her continued support and her innate ability to pick up on my ridiculous spelling mistakes.

She has produced some very thought provoking Steampunk, set on an alternative, new ice-age beset earth, although, sad to say,they are no longer posted on Wattpad. Still, I am extremely pleased about the fact that I own a printed version of 'The Two Eagles', one of her Steampunk novellas, and though she is not around Wattpad so much these days, its always nice to run into her from time to time on Twitter and whatever. Her favourite quote may be 'Oh dear', but I will always remember her as the person that introduced me to the word 'W*nkbadger'

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Only once Tahlia had climbed to the gardens' battlements, and was standing on the bridge that arched across to the hexagon tower and the chain-carriage station, could she see the vastness of the plains far below. The low morning sunlight glinted from the dozens of water holes that specked the grassland of the great-bailey, where the dark specks of madriel lounged beneath the scattered, sprawling cherossa trees. The plains had faded under the heat of first summer, turned to pale yellow and parched brown by the sun. Morning mist still clung to the earth, but if she strained her eyes and concentrated, she could just about make out the distant towers that marked the great-bailey's western limits at the marshes, where the mist thickened and blurred the horizon. To the north lay the hazy grey and white shimmer of the mountains of Monmellier, and to the south the plains rolled on over the skyline, beyond the edge of the world.

She gave another happy sigh and crossed the bridge, passing beneath the vast metal wheel that circled the chain-carriage's gear house. Lying at an angle, it was as wide as a jousting ring, and the rounded teeth that held its encircling chain were each as long as her arm. She hopped down the hexagon tower's curving stair, and when she was half a turn above the station, she peered around its edge. There was a carriage, swaying in the slight breeze, waiting beside the wide platform that arched from the tower and out into the empty air. The doors to its upper deck still stood open, and Tahlia looked cautiously through its large windows and saw that all the seats inside were empty. She smiled, then skipped down the rest of the stairs and across the cold metal plates of the platform, happy that she would not have to hide away inside the carriage's gloomy lower deck.

A Junior Engineer stood waiting on the platform, and he raised a hand in recognition as Tahlia hurried past him, through the carriage's open door and onto the coldness of its hide covered front seat. The combined scents of cured tragasaur skin and hive wax, which had been used to polish the wood of the carriage's panelling, gave the place a comforting scent, despite the cold seat and the chilliness of the air inside the carriage.

Outside, the Junior Engineer looked up at the clock high on the hexagon tower, and then passed down the side of the carriage, closing the doors and the platform gates. Tahlia breathed a slight sigh of relief when the last door was closed. Her escape from the fortress and the monotony of her lessons was almost complete. The Junior Engineer signalled to the control cabin above the gear house, a loud note sounded from the steam whistle on its roof, and Tahlia gripped the polished rail in front of her in anticipation of the first lurch that would mark the beginning of her descent.

As always, when the movement came, Tahlia's stomach leapt as the carriage swayed forward and back, before slowly settling into a gentle rocking. The huge wheel above turned as the thick chain carried it towards the ground, over the steep wedge of grass and sharp rock that was the hillside far below, bordered on each side by two of the fortress' towering shield-bastions. Tahlia watched the dark stones of the distant bastions pass by as the carriage rocked slowly downward, and wondered idly if anyone would be out looking for her yet. Probably not. Mistress Oleander would doubtless send some servants scurrying about in search of her in a while, once Mistress D'almeria noted her absence, but they were never anything to worry about.