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and return to the life they'd created with each other.
"The glass is gone," Justin said abruptly. He'd
stopped just before the mirror and stood with his arms
folded, analyzing it. Wells joined him, Avery a step
behind. From the back, the mirror looked perfectly
normal -- an ornate oval of solid oak, suspended in a
heavy frame that rested on two solid legs. But from the
front, it held only a dark oval of nothingness, and Wells'
opinion of Avery's bravery, or foolishness, went up at
the thought of the boy putting a hand through there.
Around the edges of the mirror's front gleamed the
lights Avery had described, sparkling like stars in the
darkness. The silver strands of wire that connected them
seemed foreign, as though they didn't belong on the
Shifting Steam - 103
otherwise natural object, and yet Wells sensed a
wholeness to the thing. And power.
The lights brightened as they gazed.
"It senses us," Wells said cautiously, backing up.
"No," Justin corrected, not taking his eyes off it. "It is
merely responding. I am not certain whether it is
machine or magic."
"Magic?" Avery asked, sounding more confused than
skeptical.
Justin sent him a glance. "You are not to speak of
anything you may see or hear to anyone other than us."
"No, sir," Avery said meekly. Wells knew Avery
would not, if Justin had commanded it. Just as he
himself could never speak the truth about Justin to any
other living being. Not that he'd ever wanted to.
"It has power, nevertheless," Justin went on. Wells
saw that the lights reflected on his master's white skin.
"Good or evil, I cannot tell."
"This new science that is binding the world is
neither," Wells said quietly. "Its worth is determined by
the user."
Justin nodded slowly. "I see that. Loan me your
knife, please."
Wells tensed even more. "Justin..."
"The day I start being careful is the day you should
begin to worry," Justin said and gave Wells the smile he
loved so much and so rarely saw.
Unwillingly, Wells handed over the knife, which was
slim, silver, and well honed.
Avery gave a little whimper as Justin sliced open the
palm of his left hand.
"Shhh," Wells told the boy again. "He does things
like this all the time." And has survived so far, he
thought.
Shifting Steam - 104
"Madam Silver simply put forth her hand?" Justin
asked Avery, who nodded, wide-eyed.
Justin handed the knife back to Wells, completely
unconcerned about the blood dripping down onto the
floor. He reached toward the center of the mirror. As his
fingers passed the sides of the frame, they did not stop at
the solid back. Dark mist began to swirl. It turned red as
the fresh blood touched it. Abruptly, Justin gasped in
surprise.
Wells reached for him, but Justin twisted away,
shaking his head. "Oh, interesting!" he said, keeping his
hand inside the strange, bloody mist. "Now I see!"
"See what?" Wells demanded.
"Time," Justin said, eyes fixed on the swirling mist.
"It is beautiful." He moved his fingers, and patterns
began to form and dissipate swiftly. "Do not touch!" he
added quickly as Wells and Avery both moved closer.
Wells did not intend to stick his hand in there, and he
wanted Justin's out as quickly as possible. "It's perfectly
safe for me," Justin said. "And probably you, as well,
since we're both immortal. But it was good that you
were not bleeding, Avery, when you did this. And
Madam Silver is in grave danger of losing her life here.
This mirror demands blood to stay active."
"I was afraid of that," Avery whispered.
Abruptly, Justin pulled his hand out. The swirling
mist seemed to implode, settling back into an opaque
gray sheen almost like the surface of a mirror. Wells saw
the cut on his master's hand close of its own accord,
smoothing over into clean skin, leaving no trace of a
scar.
"Someone's coming," Avery said at the same time,
pointing toward the door that he had used the first time
he'd been here, and then Wells, too, heard footsteps on
stairs.
Shifting Steam - 105
"The lady herself," Justin said, brushing off his hands
as though he expected her. "In good time. I called her,"
he added, in case they hadn't understood.
"Oh, no!" Avery gasped, looking for a place in the
empty room to hide.
"Your fear, I think, is misplaced," Justin said a little
cryptically, and then the door opened. Madam Silver
strode in.
Time and a hard life had etched with more than lines
in her face. She reminded Wells, as he looked closely at
her, of women who had lived on the manor of his youth
-- women who had no real choices and went through life
filled with sadness for what was missing, though what
that might be, they weren't even sure. Still, she faced
Justin with surprising courage.
"What have you done to my mirror?" she demanded,
focusing only on him. She was dressed as they had last
seen her, in bright clothes, frilled and laced, and the
smell of her heady perfume followed her into the dim
room.
Avery slipped out of sight behind the mirror despite
Justin's reassurance.
"I have done nothing save test it," Justin said calmly,
and honestly, as far as Wells could tell. "It is of your
design?"
She tossed her head. "You sound surprised. Do you
think because I am a woman I know nothing of science?
Do you think I made it just so that I could turn back time
in my house and keep myself young and beautiful?"
"I think you have strong needs," Justin said, looking
at her levelly, "and I think that might have been part of
the allure of meddling with the flow of history. And I
think that you have unleashed more than anyone can
handle alone."
Shifting Steam - 106
Madam Silver drew herself up. "I was not alone until
recently! My mother was an alchemist, and her mother
was before her! When I was young, they disguised me as [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]