Ink and Bone

She called over a waiting assistant, and they inserted needles and fluids, and his constant pain began to recede like a wave pulling out to sea.

The doctor bustled off to see other patients, he supposed, and he floated for a while before Wolfe came back into the tent.

‘You’re supposed to be lying down,’ Jess said. ‘She said so.’

‘You had something else to tell me.’

Jess stirred uncomfortably. He felt sweaty, and the drugs were begi

‘Did he?’ Wolfe seemed utterly still. ‘I don’t believe we should take the word of Burners for that.’

‘But if he’s telling the truth, someone else did.’ Jess swallowed a sudden taste of bile. ‘He said someone told him where we’d be. The explosion was white. Not green. It wasn’t Greek Fire.’

Wolfe considered that, but if he came to a conclusion, he didn’t share it. ‘The doctor says you’ll be well enough to travel in a few days. We’re fortified and heavily guarded here. There’s no risk in waiting. Rest.’

He headed for the tent flap, but Jess didn’t let him leave without asking the question that had been on his mind since Danton had planted the seed of it out there in the dark forest.

‘Scholar? Did someone in the Library just try to kill us?’

‘I hope not,’ Wolfe said. ‘Because if they have, they’ll try again. There’s no fighting them. I’ve tried.’

That seemed to beg a lot of questions, Jess thought, but Wolfe was gone before he could even begin to think how to ask them.

The next morning brought him a new visitor, as Jess was plotting how best to stage an escape from being fussed over by the surgeon. He’d just decided to ask Thomas to stage a collapse and draw her off when Morgan stepped into the tent.

He stared at her, because he didn’t know what to say to her, or how to say it; she had a way of making him feel awkward, as if it was the first time they’d met, every time. Part of it was because she looked different. Instead of wearing her hair up, it was down, soft around her shoulders, and it made him remember how soft and heavy it had felt in his hands. She’d been spending time outside in the sun. He saw a bright splash of sunburn on her nose.

‘You really should stop this,’ she said.

‘Stop what?’ She gestured around them, at the medical equipment. He nodded. ‘I should. Fu

‘It’s my fault?’ She came another step towards him, but only one. He wondered bitterly if Wolfe had fitted her with a restraint again. Maybe the restraint was to keep her away from him.

‘You make me careless,’ he said. ‘I mean that as a compliment. I’ve always been too careful.’

‘I never thought that. You always seemed—’

‘Impulsive?’

‘You never seemed afraid of risking things.’

This felt all wrong, all wrong. They were talking like two people who were strangers, and she wasn’t coming closer. There were shadows in her eyes, and in her smile. Distance.

‘Morgan,’ he said, and heard the longing in his voice when he said her name. He didn’t know how to go on from that, and wasn’t sure he could. ‘You should have run.’

She took a step closer. No more than that.

‘Wolfe told me what you did. How you came back. I don’t remember any of it. I was hiding, and waiting for everyone to leave, and it took too long. The smoke came through the vents. I tried to stand up, and …’ She let it hang there, then raised her hands, palms up. ‘Then I was in the forest, and they said you were missing. How could I leave?’

‘How could you not? If ever they would be distracted, that would have been the time.’

‘I know.’ She came the rest of the way, across the floor, and settled on the foot of his bed. He was intensely aware of her, and at the same time, of the fact that he still smelt of toxic smoke, dirt, and sweat. ‘I had to know that you were alive. I thought – I thought the Burners had killed you.’ Her breath caught suddenly, and her eyes widened, and she turned her head to look at him. ‘That’s what it felt like, when you thought I’d jumped. Oh, Jess. I’m sorry.’

‘Well,’ he said, ‘I didn’t do it to teach you a lesson.’

A laugh burst out of her, and she leant over and kissed him. I taste of Greek Fire, he thought, but if he did, she didn’t pull away. She relaxed against him, and the sweet taste of her lips drowned all the bitter chemicals. All the bitter memories. He pushed her loose, dark hair back from her face, and sighed as she pulled back, just a little. ‘I missed you,’ he said. ‘But I really was hoping to never see you again.’

‘That is no way to charm a girl.’ Thomas’s voice, from the door of the tent. Morgan stood up in one quick motion, and Jess almost laughed himself at the expression on her face. Thomas did laugh. ‘Don’t you think I know? We all know. We have no secrets, we students.’

That was blackly fu

‘What’s that?’ Morgan asked. Thomas had something in a bag over his shoulder, and it wasn’t small.

‘Something to keep Jess occupied,’ Thomas said. ‘I had time to finish it. None of us but Khalila can beat him at chess. I thought I would make him a proper opponent.’

‘Make one?’

Thomas set down the bag, looked around, and found a small folding table that he carried over to sit next to Jess’s bed. Then he reached in and took out a large wooden chessboard that sat on a metal box frame almost two inches deep. He looked for the drawer where the chessmen would be kept, but the sides were seamless.

‘You brought me an empty board?’

‘Ach, sorry, no room for the pieces inside.’ Thomas reached back into the bag and took out a smaller matching box, which he opened. Inside were metal chess pieces in steel and iron. Thomas set them in quick, deft motions. ‘Black or white?’

‘White,’ Jess said.

‘Move.’

Jess obligingly pushed a pawn forward and waited for Thomas to do the same. Thomas didn’t. He just stood there with that delighted grin on his face.

A piece of black iron moved itself, gliding forward two spaces.

‘It’s an automaton,’ Thomas said. ‘One that plays chess. I had Khalila help me with all the calculations.’

Jess moved his pawn forward again. The automaton’s black pawn slid into his, and his white piece tipped over on its side, rolled off the board, and fastened itself to one side of the metal box.

Taken off the board.

‘Magnetic,’ Thomas said. ‘If I had more time I would make it smaller underneath so there could be a drawer for taken pieces. Next time.’

‘It’s incredible,’ Jess said. ‘It’s—’

‘It’s beautiful,’ Morgan said. She picked up the piece that had fastened itself to the side and ran it through her fingers. ‘Did you make all this? How?’

‘Yes. Captain Santi was kind enough to have it sent to Toulouse, and the soldiers brought it,’ Thomas said. ‘I finished it before we left Alexandria.’

‘Can it actually play a full game?’ Jess moved another piece, this time really putting thought into it, and it was eerie how quickly the machine countered him. Correctly countered him.

‘That was why it took so long to build,’ Thomas said. ‘A chess game has at least ten to the forty-third power of moves.’

‘How long did it take you, then?’ Morgan stood and watched as Jess moved pieces, and the automaton played its side.

‘Months, for the clockworks. A few days for the pieces. Alles Gute zum Geburtstag, Jess.’

‘It’s not my birthday.’

Thomas shrugged. ‘I’ve known you this long. It must be coming some time. Besides, you need a distraction.’ A smile spread wide across his face. ‘Although it seems you have found a very pretty one, anyway.’

‘Flatterer,’ Morgan said. ‘Go ahead, Jess. Play.’