19. Magical
The chamber was dark when I woke the next morning and, considering the tumult of the last days, uncharacteristically quiet. As I became aware of a grim light eking from the shuttered windows, I lifted my sleep encrusted eyes to find Elizabeth in my arms. She was turned away from me, hair upon her cheek. The boy was still sleeping, occasionally with a start. I could only imagine what nightmares tortured his slumber.
"Elizabeth." I whispered, nudging her upon the shoulder. To my gentle roust she moaned, brushed tendrils from her face and curled further into the white slip of feather pillow. I rolled my eyes and spoke more insistently. "Elizabeth!"
She took in a sudden draw of air.
"Booker?" She said, only slowly realizing where she was. Glancing about, she levered herself up and rolled to me, leaving us face to face. "I...I dreamt..." She looked to the windows. "Of a bird, only it wasn't a bird it was that..."
"Shhh..." I whispered, touching her lips with my fingertip. "It's later than it looks, and the house is too quiet."
Pressing backward upon her elbows she too examined the room. "I thought the Montgomerys were supposed to wake us then take the boy?"
"They were. I need you to watch him while I go check. Maybe it was a long night."
As I rose, she extricated herself from the covers. "He'll be fine. I'll go with you."
"Elizabeth, please..."
Donning loaned slippers she joined me in her nightgown, handing me my gun's shoulder strap holster and as I put it on the Broadsider. "You might as well get used to this, Mr. DeWitt..." She said, shoving the gun into its slot. "Like I said last night, we're in this together." She turned to retrieve the Triple R, examining its chamber before loading a fresh magazine. Satisfied, she handed it to me with a dubious glance to my attire. "Do you always sleep fully clothed?"
I met her eyes before checking the weapon. "When people who want to kill us might burst in? It's a thing." I looked to the kid and tossed the pillow at him, causing him to stir.
"Booker!" She exclaimed, but the lad woke and turned to face us.
"Kid, time to get up. We have to get moving."
"Nanny?" The boy said with a jolt, pushing himself upright from the plush chair he'd slept in. "Mrs. Marsdon?"
Her gaze excoriated me before she knelt at his side. "No, Freddy. It's me, Elizabeth, and Mr. DeWitt. We're taking you back to your Uncle this morning. Can you get ready?"
Still rubbing his eyes, the little blond boy turned to her. Upon his face I could see the memories of the previous days return. Elizabeth took him in her arms, whispering that he was safe with us...that we'd get him home. How she could be so certain of that I wasn't privy, but when she went to let him go, he clung.
"You need to get dressed." I said to them both and stepped to the door. "I'll be right back."
Down the stairs an eerie quiet prevailed. I made my way to the Montgomery's master bedchamber with the repeating rifle drawn. Receiving no reply to my gentle knock, I swung the twin doors inward to reveal a half made, unoccupied canopy bed. Like our rooms the chamber's shutters were drawn. It was the same with the bath and as I stalked down the last flight of steps with the weapon, I heard a noise descending from behind. At the red carpeted landing above Elizabeth appeared, jacket in one hand, boy in other. The corset she'd been bequeathed the night before was still visibly undone at its back.
"Dammit, I told you to stay back!"
She ignored me and turned her unlaced shoulders my way. "Help me with this, will you?" In frustration I shoved the Triple R into the wide-eyed Fink boy's hands. Taking her lace in fingertips, I drew it taught from top to bottom with intentional force, causing the girl to catch in her breath with a jolt.
"Not so...hard." She winced.
"I told you to stay behind. How can I keep you safe if you follow me ev..."
"We're in this together." She reiterated as I finished. Turning to face me, she handed me another magazine for the Triple R. Suspiciously I took it from her, wondering where they hell she'd come up with this one. It too was full. "Or wasn't I clear enough?"
"What's clear is that you're going to freeze to death in that." I muttered as I secured her find in my pocket, trying to keep my thoughts off her modest but well-formed endowment.
"It's not like I have a multitude of options." She whispered, drawing the jacket about her shoulders as the boy supervised.
With careful placement of feet I descended the remaining stairs, setting foot upon the Drawing Room's red carpet. Swinging into the kitchen ahead of them, I found breakfast set but unserved, four empty plates with platters of eggs and bacon steaming. As I passed them for the Dining Room, I appropriated a slab of golden toast and dropped some bacon on it. The boy did the same. With toast in mouth, I smirked and gave him the nod, much to Elizabeth's consternation. Shortly the famished little devil was scarfing down bread and butter, the two of us with locked eyes in some sort of undeclared race.
"Mr. Montgomery?" Elizabeth sang out, craning her head backward up the staircase and about the lower living quarters. Her words echoed the floor and shook me out of my impromptu buffet.
"Elizabeth?" I heard from the Foyer in half whisper. About the corner backpedaled a terror-stricken Evelyn, finger to her lips, motioning us to remain silent. "Vox!" She whispered. I hefted my weapon and strode past her for the windows. It was gloomy outside, and the windows thick at their bottoms with condensation. The curtains were drawn, but with a slender finger our host drew one back. In the street beyond the trolley stop I could see ragtag men zagging the streets, weapons ready.
"Where's your husband? I asked. "I thought he was going to take the kid to Fink's?"
"He was..." She retorted, brow furrowed. "But he was afraid of what he might find and went ahead to divine the situation. That was an hour ago but...but he hasn't come back!"
"Fink's is just down the street, what, maybe an eighth of a mile?"
"That's what worries me so." She said, eyes following the red banner ruffians as they disappeared down toward the Station. "What if something happened?"
"Did you hear any gunshots?"
She shook her head. "It's been unearthly quiet this morning, ever since the fog set in."
Glancing toward Elizabeth, I realized she was thinking the same as I. "Every time we stick our necks out like this, Paris gets a little farther away. Maybe a lot farther away."
"If we don't, then what are we?"
"Alive." Seeing that she didn't appreciate my sincerity, I relented. "Okay, but we do this my way. No one knows you're here and we're gonna keep it that way. I'll run the boy down to Fink's. When I get back, we go. Got it?"
"But Booker..."
"I am NOT risking you." My intensity seemed to cow the girl. I leaned into her confidence. "If this is a trap, I want you well clear of it."
"And what if you get killed!?" She anguished, eyes upon mine. I realized in that moment she'd taken my hand.
"I won't and I need you safe. And that isn't about New York."
"Please, Mr. DeWitt...don't leave me alone!" Those damned eyes had me, and I realized that more so than even death or the tower it was that thought that terrified her. Evelyn, I realized, was not enough, remembering how despondent she'd looked before I'd spirited her from that place. How she'd looked at me. Like a branch I'd been offered to her, held from the bank of a stream before an infinite waterfall. One chance and one hope of salvation. "Evelyn, we're going to get Archie and will be back shortly."
Montgomery's wife covered her mouth, on the verge of tears. "I'm coming too." I glared at her but Elizabeth's protest had unlocked her own will. Two women and a kid...we were certain to be rolled up.
"All right, have it your way but you do exactly as I say.
"Yes, Mr. DeWitt." The women said in concert.
I rolled my eyes. "Come on."
#
With a draw of the Montgomery House's double doors I'd peered outward onto Market Street, finding the Vox moved on and the brick street damp and empty. I pressed Evelyn to take the Broadsider but she shook her head no. I already knew Elizabeth's mind on the matter. I sighed and I tucked it back in the holster.
The smell of burnt wood hung in the air but with the fog shrouding, it was hard to discern a source, near or far. Alley to alcove we made our way down the boulevard, the women and boy behind me. From nearly every establishment awnings hung to the ground, fabric shredded and limp in the storm's wake. Beneath them windows were broken and stores looted. Occasionally the odd contortion of a corpse presented itself...men and women, boys and girls. None had been spared.
Elizabeth did her best to shield Freddy's eyes, who after a day had yet to utter a complete sentence. I knew exactly what he was feeling. Of the handful of buildings that had electricity, their signs flickered or sparked from stray gunfire.
"This is horrible." Elizabeth whispered, holding my sleeve by the elbow. In a start we all turned our heads toward distant gunfire, a series of reports muffled by the mist. Gently I removed her hand and sheltered her, Evelyn and the boy in an alley.
After a few moments wait I led us forward, coming upon an automobile smoldering in the street. Beneath it, vestiges of gasoline flickered from a ruptured fuel tank. Soon we came across another similarly mangled, the drivers still in their seats. Their faces were shredded, not only by the impact but by bullets. Flies buzzed about their lifeless corpses.
"Nice of everyone here to come out and help." I said, fighting the urge to look away.
"How could they?" Evelyn answered, gesturing toward a nearby alleyway. "Everyone's terrified and hiding behind locked doors. The Vox were shooting anyone they happened upon, and later anyone they missed was caught in the Columbian Guard's counterattack."
"How much further?" I asked, peering into the murk.
"Not far. There's a trolley stop up ahead beyond that arch. Magical Melodies is a stone's throw from it."
"Magical Melodies?"
"Mr. Fink's store."
#
Albert Fink's Magical Melodies hardly looked magical as we approached. Its red brick frontage was stained with soot, windows broken and doors knocked in. A barrage of bullet holes adorned its white quoin corners. Atop a smoking green roof trim, yellow letters dangled from a wrecked sign:
Albert Fink's Magical Melodies
A Division of Fink Industries
"Booker..." Elizabeth said nervously, eyes darting down the empty street. Above the towers and darkened high rises I could see the three towers of Comstock House split by a break in the clouds. Gunfire echoed through the high buildings about us. "I don't like this."
"The Vox have been here." I answered.
"Archie?" Evelyn whispered, creeping closer to the door.
I put an arm out to hold her back, pointing to the window to our right. Inside I heard an odd but familiar melody, the same as calliope at Battleship Bay...a song about 'girls wanting to have fun.' Even stranger was the sound of the instruments backing it, neither calliope nor piano. Above the music I heard a moan and looked to the women.
"Where's my Uncle?" Asked the boy. Slipping through the open window, I made a dash toward the opposite door. Shortly Elizabeth and the boy came on, followed by Evelyn. To my hand the white wood of the door opened with barely a creak. A ruined Sitting Room lay within, carpet layered by dust.
Pursuing its mahogany tables and high back chairs, the music seemed to play louder. "This feels like a set up." I said, glaring at Evelyn. The boy looked at me with wide eyes.
"We'd never do that to you!"
"I'm not saying you would." As I spoke, I heard that groan coming from down the darkened corridor again. From a door ajar, faint illumination lit the carpet.
"Archibald?!" Evelyn cried, lunging so for the Sitting Room.
"Evelyn!" I snatched her back. "Don't be a fool! You and the boy stay here. I'll check it out." Elizabeth glared at me, and with a sigh I continued. "Elizabeth and I...we'll check it out."
"Who's there!?" Shouted a deep voice. "Come out and show yourselves, hands up!"
"Were not Vox." I replied, keeping Elizabeth out of sight. "We're here for Montgomery. Archibald Montgomery."
"Who is he to you!?"
"My husband! Please, if you have him here, let me see him!"
I rolled my eyes and pushed Evelyn back. "Look, we got no quarrel with you but if you have the man, we need to get him home."
"Show yourselves."
"Not until you tell us who you are. Tell me who you are and I'll show my skin."
"I'm Albert Fink. I own this place, or what's left of it."
"Uncle...Uncle Albert!?" The boy suddenly cried, bursting free of Elizabeth's grasp. She started to chase him but I stopped her cold, placing our backs to the wall.
"Freddy!?" I heard with a sob. "No, stay there...stay back!"
The boy crashed across the debris strewn carpet, disappearing into the back rooms. "Oh, Uncle Albert! Uncle Albert..." I heard the muffled thud of body against body, another sob, then presently, "Who are these men?"
The three of us looked to one another. "Out!" I shouted.
Beyond the ruined window I saw movement, Columbian regulars darting for cover amidst the debris and fallen cladding of the building. Wrestling Elizabeth downward, I had half a mind to gift Montgomery a bullet...yet in her face I could see she was as bewildered as I. Against my better judgement I drew her to the ground. "You lied to us."
"I swear to you, I did not!" Evelyn exclaimed, eyes frantic.
"Look, I'm thankful you brought the boy." Fink continued. "Beyond thankful, actually...we thought he was dead with my brother. Still, you need to show your face now. You have to know you're surrounded."
"Got any tricks up your sleeve?" I asked Elizabeth.
"There are...are tears here, but just...people composing music and singing." She said with a hopeless look.
"You have to be able to do better than that." She looked at me and shrugged. I sighed. "Great."
Then from the dingy mist outside came a new voice, one like the melody I'd heard before but strange. "Elizabeth, it is time to end this tantrum of yours. Haven't you caused enough hurt?" That voice now was not Fink's, deeper and gravelly.
"What do you want with her!" I shouted, counting the rounds in my repeater.
"I want to take her home, False Shepherd. That is all. Surrender her now and I shall let you leave unmolested and free to depart Columbia. If not, then you will see the Father's divine wrath."
Perhaps for a moment Elizabeth thought I'd considered the offer for she suddenly evinced an anger I'd not seen, fury born of fear and desperation. Reaching backward with outstretched arms, she seemed to grasp the very air itself which suddenly came aflame in a brilliant white shear. A blast of deafening sound erupted from the tear, emanating from towering stacks of black boxes that undulated just beyond a fiery periphery. So loud was it I dropped my weapon and threw my hands to my ears.
Beyond the windows it had similar effect. I saw Comstock's soldiers panic, probably wondering like Cade's men before what devilry had descended upon them. As they covered their ears and even fell to the ground, I could see the old man amongst them, clad in a knee length brown coat with padded shoulders. Even he had turned away by his daughter's malign blast.
Unable to remove my hands for fear of going deaf, I looked back to see Elizabeth's face beset by her own attack. Like me Evelyn was upon the ground covering her ears, and though she was screaming I couldn't hear what. In fact, I couldn't hear anything. Outside I saw movement, saw Comstock raise his hand and drop it. A thrumming struck the building and the tear abruptly collapsed, the hideous cacophony with it.
Elizabeth screamed.
As she writhed her hands flew to her head, shimmering splinters of light evaporating from her body. She fell to her knees, wailing for moments before she could speak. "Make it stop! Booker, make it stop!"
I flung myself outward, taking cover behind the cutout of a ruined wall. From my new vantage outside the Melodies' battered shell, I could see a gunship hovering above, three sound horns slung below its silent expanse. Liquid light seemed to emanate from Elizabeth, flowing into the horn's ears like water down a drain. I brought my weapon up and took aim at one. Something struck me in the side of the head that felt like a locomotive.
Down on my flank, I rolled to see a Columbian regular in padded armor and leather helmet, rifle in hand, face inscrutable behind his eye ware. Once more his boot caught me in the chin, sending me backward over the stone pile rubble as his mates poured over the crest. Above me with beard and mustache white as snow Comstock gloated in triumph. I'd not seem him before, but he was frighteningly like the portrait we'd seen at the curio shop at the Bay. Pointing his cane at me he spoke anew, loudly enough that his voice carried over her cries.
"You see child..." One of his men kicked me in the gut. Spit and blood flew from my mouth. "You chose to follow a False Shepherd and he has led you astray. Now I shall lead you back to the righteous path. What I do I do for love!"
As he advanced toward her, a man in dark glasses, gloves and white lab coat hastened forward betwixt the troopers. With Elizabeth still writhing, he took her into his arms. Dimly from the broken building I could see Fink and a captive Evelyn looking on...saw the boy's bewildered eyes alongside his Uncle.
"No!" I heard Montgomery's wife cry, silenced by the butt of a Columbian rifle. Amid their kicks and punches I heard Elizabeth's shrieks falter...saw her slump forward, brown hair falling before a slackened face. Drawing the hypodermic syringe from her arm, the physician sequestered it in a leather pouch at his side, nodding to the soldiers to take her in their carriage.
As I raised my head, eyes barely open, Comstock's men were upon me. I realized then, that I'd failed her.
Completely and utterly, I had failed her.