The Impossible Cube

Blue, the pirate who had cornered Gavin on the Juniper and tried to take his trousers down. He was the first mate who had sliced the flesh on Gavin’s back with a whip. Gavin hadn’t had a normal night’s sleep since. Nightmares made the dark restless, and every morning, Gavin jerked awake, his heart pounding. This terrible man drooling on the floor before him was the symbol of everything that was wrong in this world, everything that had gone wrong in Gavin’s life. And he was helpless.

It occurred to Gavin with terrible certainty that he could end the entire problem here and now. It would be child’s play to kill every Gonta in the room, even with the generator occupying his hands. He could knock the Gontas over, one by one, and stand on their disgusting throats until they suffocated, or break each of their loathsome necks with well-placed kicks. And all the while they would thank him for the lovely, deadly music. He and Alice and Feng and the children could walk out of the house, free and clear. How sweet that would be.

He planted himself, aimed the first kick that would snap a Cossack neck. And then a touch on his shoulder brought him around. Alice was there.

Come on! she mouthed. Hurry!

Gavin hesitated. Alice. Beautiful, practical Alice. She was standing beside him, in the same place, in the same danger, and yet it never even occurred to her to execute the Gontas.

She plucked at his sleeve. Why the wait? she mouthed. Come!

How would she react if he killed a group of helpless people, no matter how filthy and foul? And… how would he react later? Only a few days ago, the thought of killing a man with his energy whip had filled him with fear and disgust. Now he was calmly considering destroying a roomful of people. What was he becoming? What was this city turning him into? His skin crawled even as his hand continued to turn the generator. He wouldn’t let himself become their sort of demon.

“Let’s go,” he said. Still playing, he turned his back on the Gontas and let Alice lead him to the lift.

Chapter Twelve

The lift gate clanged shut and Gavin stopped cranking the strange machine in his hands. Instantly the eerie, nail-biting noise ended, and Alice breathed a sigh of relief. Gavin popped the protectors off his ears and hung them around his neck.

“They’ll stay in that stupor for a few minutes longer,” he said. “We need to hurry.”

The lift was crowded with the ten children, Gavin, Alice, and Feng. Feng, with the dreadful spider sprawled across half his face like a brass scar. It made Alice sick with guilt to see it and the scars that puckered his chest and torso. She felt bad enough after seeing Feng, and the thought of leaving the children behind in those cages… well, that was quite impossible, no matter what the risk to her own safety might be.

Alice spun the crank on the lift control and moved the lever, unable to read the Cyrillic characters but hoping UP and DOWN would be in the same places as an English lift. The lift jerked upward, making the children gasp in fear. They shied away from Feng and clustered around Alice likes chicks around a hen. Two of them clutched her hands, despite the iron spider on her left. This was, strangely, her first prolonged contact with children, and she couldn’t decide whether the odd circumstances of the occasion should make her laugh at the ridiculousness of it or howl with outrage at the injustice.

“Are you all right, Gavin?” she asked instead as the lift continued to rise.

“I’m fine.” He held up the generator. “Danilo Zalizniak offered the earth for this.”

“What in heaven’s name for?”

“So the Zalizniaks could get the upper hand on the Gontas and—I’m guessing—expand their empire.”

“Good heavens,” Alice said. “I hadn’t thought of that. The moment we get the children to safety, we must destroy that thing.” She paused, still holding the slightly sweaty hands of the two children. Gavin was grinning at her, and the wide, handsome smile was still enough to make her breath stop, especially when it was aimed at her. “What is it?”

“Feng is in terrible trouble, we could be chopped into pieces at any moment, and the second we leave this lift, we’re going to be fighting our way through god-knows-what, but you’re thinking about the children.” He continued to smile. “You saved me back there, you know.”

She blinked. “Did I? I thought you were saving me.”

“Not at all,” he said seriously. “You led me into hell, Alice, and now I know you’re going to lead me back out.”

The lift slammed to a halt, and for a horrible moment Alice thought the Cossacks had stopped them, but through the gate she could see the main floor of the great house. “Feng,” she said, “open the lift.”

Feng leaped forward like a puppet on strings and slammed the iron gate aside with the sound of a death bell. Alice felt sick again at the way his scarred body obeyed, but made herself focus. Right now, they had to get out of the Gonta-Zalizniak house intact, and if success required her to bark orders at Feng, she would do it.

Kemp was waiting for them in the marble foyer. The surreal sight of his familiar head on a different body gave Alice a turn, even though she’d been prepared for it. “I see Madam and Sir were successful in their attempt,” he said. “Excellent work, if I may be so bold.”

“Thank you, Kemp,” Alice said. She herded the children out of the lift. They were gaining confidence in her now, seemed to understand that she was there to help, and they were more willing to follow her. They were fearful, innocent, and trusting, children who had lived through things no child should dream of, let alone experience. She felt a deep need to ensure their safety and was quite sure she would die to protect them. For a moment, she wondered if this was what it was like to have children of her own, though she didn’t think that she would want to start off—or even finish—with ten of them. She did a quick head count and led everyone toward the front door, her parasol at the ready. Feng and Kemp took up the rear, with Gavin among the children. He looked like a rather distracted young father on an outing, and Alice pushed the thought away to examine later.

The house seemed to be in confusion. Human servants rushed about or stood uncertainly in corners. A smell of burned food hung in the air. Alice put on the air of a lady and strode confidently, ignoring everyone around her. No one would dare challenge her; it would never occur to her that someone might. Keep moving, keep moving. Check the children, ensure none had wandered away. Push past the handwringing housekeeper who babbled at her in Ukrainian. Thread through the maze of rooms. Nearly at the exit. Keep moving, keep moving.

She found herself in the middle of an enormous two-storied room with red marble floors and pillars. A grand staircase swept up to a balcony that ran around the entire chamber. High arched windows provided light, and ten-