The Dragon Men

to Yeh in a thunderous voice.

“The guardian birds will take you to Kashgar,” it said, and Gavin gasped. The dragon spoke Chinese, but Gavin understood it perfectly well. Definitely a function of the clockwork plague. Yet it hadn’t done this for him in France or Germany or Ukraine. Was it a sign of the disease’s acceleration? If he was learning languages in moments, how much time did he have left?

“Do not leave the ship,” the dragon continued. “Soldiers who are immune to the blessing of dragons will board in Kashgar and accompany you to Peking. If you leave the ship, you will die. Do you understand?”

Yeh bowed again. “Yes, my lord.”

The dragon turned toward Gavin and whuffed out more warm, damp steam. It said in English, “You are. . special.”

Surprised, Gavin said, “Am I?”

“Indeed,” the dragon growled, then dipped its head. “I will alert the proper people.”

“I don’t understand,” Gavin said.

But the dragon merely dropped out of sight. The brass birds sprang back to life and hauled the Lady back into the air while Yeh turned to the three Westerners to translate the dragon’s instructions about not leaving the ship. Gavin thought about doing it himself, then decided to keep to himself the fact that he knew Chinese. Who knew what might be said in front of him if the speakers didn’t know he understood?

Hours later, the city of Kashgar hove into view. Gavin’s nerves hummed with tension. He tried to tell himself that the Chinese wanted Alice alive, that if they wanted her dead, the dragon would have destroyed her in a moment. It didn’t help. Alice appeared cool and unflappable, but he noticed a tightness around her mouth and in her neck.

Just outside high brown city walls, the birds halted the ship and flew away in a chattering metal cloud. The ship lurched under the abrupt change, and Gavin steadied the helm just in time. A cloud of dust emerged from one of the city gates and grew closer. It was caused by a contingent of soldiers-twenty-four of them, at Gavin’s count- on horseback galloping toward the Lady. They wore scarlet coats and carried curved swords. All of them sported metal: a brass hand with blades for fingers, iron claws, a fitted monocle like Phipps’s, a pistol mounted on a forearm. At Yeh’s word, Gavin dropped a ladder, and the men swarmed up it while below a groom strung the horses together. The Lady settled lower under the weight again. Alice moved closer to Gavin, and Phipps tensed. One man whose coat was of a different cut came forward. He glanced at Alice, who glanced coolly back. Then he and Yeh bowed to each other, and they spoke at length. Gavin’s understanding grew with every word, like a wireless radio that tuned out more and more static until the signal became clear. It was a strange sensation, and oddly exhilarating.

“This Lieutenant Hing Li,” Yeh translated when they finished. “He and his men stay on ship until we arrive in Peking. No one leaves ship. You try, you killed. You fly ship in direction Lieutenant Li say. You change course, you die. We stop for supplies when he say, and soldiers bring them. You no leave ship. All soldiers have survived blessing of dragons-you say clockwork plague-so cure from Lady Michaels not affect them.”

“They’re survivors,” Gavin said. “That’s why all the metal, isn’t it? The plague crippled them.”

“You Westerners call it a plague,” Yeh spat. “Treat it like a curse instead of honorable blessing. In China, those who survive blessing of dragons bring great honor to families, and as a reward for strength, are allowed to join army or work for empire. Those who become Dragon Men are exalted.”

“So why doesn’t everyone try to contract the plague?” Alice asked.

“Not everyone strong enough to face it,” Yeh replied. “Not everyone strong enough to face death.”

Next, Lieutenant Li handed Yeh a handful of bottle corks, and Yeh turned back to Alice. “You wear these on claws so you not spread cure. You take them off-”

“I die, yes, yes.” Alice accepted the corks and pushed them onto her clawed fingertips with little squeaking sounds. “Is that the only consequence you hand out in China?”

“Only one people listen to.”

The soldiers, meanwhile, spread out all over the ship, over the deck and down below, swarming into every space, every nook, every cranny, calling to one another in coarse Chinese. Gavin could almost feel their greasy fingers running over the Lady’s wood, hear them scraping her decks with their gritty boots, sense their prying eyes. He thought about the reward bonds and the Impossible Cube hidden in their secret compartment and resisted the impulse to check on it. That would only draw attention to the place. His glance met Phipps’s, and he knew she was thinking the same thing.

One of the men came up from below holding Click. The cat hissed and tried to swipe at the man’s arm, but his claws only raked brass. The soldier held Click up by the neck, laughing. Outrage swept over Gavin. Before he could respond, Alice stepped forward and snatched Click from the surprised man’s grasp.

“Don’t touch him!” she snapped. “Who do you think you are?”

There was a whisper of sound as every soldier on deck drew a weapon. All were pointed at Alice. Tension hummed in the air. Gavin’s gaze flicked around the deck, and his mind ran a hundred calculations, none of them successful. He jumped in front of Alice, and a soldier grabbed his arm.

Gavin rounded on him in a fury. “One of us is going to remove that hand.”

“Your father was a turtle,” the man snarled, and his sword-metal, not glass-moved toward Gavin’s throat.

“Gavin!” Alice cried.

Then Susan Phipps stepped forward.

“That’s quite enough,” she said, and repeated it in accented but perfectly serviceable Chinese. Gavin blinked at her. “Everyone calm down. You are all honorable men, and your duty is to keep Lady Michaels from harm. If you fail, the emperor will be displeased. If you complete your task, you will be rewarded. In the meantime, we ask you to leave us and our possessions alone. In return, we will not try to escape. Agreed?”

Lieutenant Li came up on deck in time to hear her speech. He cocked his head. “Where did you learn our language?” he said. “It falls strangely from a Western tongue.”

“I served in the East for several years,” Phipps replied with a bow. “But my skills are poor.”

“Not so poor,” Li said. “In any case, it shall be as you say. Soldiers!”

The soldier holding Gavin’s arm let go. Gavin straightened his jacket as the men put their weapons away. The tension left the air, and Gavin relaxed. A little. Alice stroked Click, who was muttering to himself.

“Is it going to be like this all the way to China?” she asked.

“It had better not be,” Gavin muttered back.

“Oh?”

“At least one of us will be dead if it is,” he growled. “And it won’t be me.”

But to Gavin’s surprise, the next several days went smoothly. Phipps and Li, both military, seemed to have forged a wary respect. Alice stayed close to Gavin, and Click stayed close to Alice. The only other incident was when a soldier discovered Alice’s spiders and whirligigs, still hiding in the hold from their encounter with the brass dragon. A great commotion came from one of the hatchways, and the soldier bolted across the deck with several little mechanicals in hot pursuit. He yelped, “Turtle turtle turtle turtle turtle!” as he ran, something Gavin had only recently come to understand was a swear word or insult in Chinese. It was only with great effort that Gavin kept his face neutral. Alice’s skin went pink.

“Tell me,” Phipps said to Li at one point, “why did the emperor close the borders?”

“You do not know?” Li replied.

They were standing near the main hatchway, not far from the helm where Gavin was piloting, and Gavin was easily able to overhear them. By now, he had listened to hundreds of conversations among the soldiers and gotten some translations from Phipps, and his mind made leaps and connections, untangling syntax and extrapolating vocabulary. He wondered if this was how Dr. Clef, a native German, had learned English.