Paul Kater - Lily Marin : Three Short Steampunk Stories

by Paul Kater

Published by the author at Smashwords -Copyright 2011 Paul Kater

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Contents:

"Lily?"

The voice made her look up from herimprovised make-up table. In the smudgy mirror, which was flankedby oil lamps with cracked leather caps, she saw the outline of theowner of the bar.

Lily had just sung in his establishment andnow she was removing the make-up from her face. "What do you want?And why don't you knock when you come into a lady's dressing room?I could be naked for all you know." She assumed that was what hehad been hoping for.

"Just wanted to bring your pay, Lily, that'sall." Part of the man in the shadows became visible for a moment asa hand put an envelope on the table. "I'll get in touch when wehave another evening. You're the best, Lily." For a hesitant secondit looked as if the hand wanted to come to a rest on her shoulder,but its owner decided differently. He did not know how smart adecision that was. Footsteps moved away from the singer.

Lily waited until the door closed. "Sure. Thebest. That's why I sing here and not in something like AlbertHall." She knew she wasn't the best singer in the world, but thatwas fine with her. She could live her life anonymously and do whatshe liked. And what she had to. "Speaking of which, I should getmoving," she told her hairbrush.

The singer quickly put her few belongings inher bag, slipped her coat on and with her umbrella in hand she leftthe bar through the back door. A fine rain greeted her as shewalked away.

"Wonder when there is an evening I won't needit," Lily muttered as she fought the umbrella. She won, so shecould walk along under the small portable shelter. Since the startof the alchemists' convention it seemed to rain more thanusual.

She reached her modest home. It was not faraway. Lily got out of her dress and washed her face. It was timefor action again. The newspaper had told her so, earlier that day.She tied her long dark hair in a tight knot at the back of her headto keep it out of the way.

As she slipped into the tight black leatherpants, she thought of the audience in the bar. Good people, sheknew, hard-working folks out for a nice time. And they didn'tobject to her singing, she thought with a grin. Lily put on the redshirt and buttoned that up. A leather vest went over it and thenshe buckled up the tool belt, as she called it. Once the belt wasaround her waist, she checked the tools.

The dagger was shiny and sharp, the razors inplace. The rad-gun, big and heavy, was full as she picked it fromthe charging unit. The weight of the radiation thrower feltcomforting on her hip as it slid in the slightly worn holster.Without looking Lily switched it to standby, so the internalcircuitry could warm up.

She went to get the long coat and put it on.It never ceased to amaze her how light it was, considering how manystrands of reinforced microfibres were woven into the fabric. Itwithstood bullets and had once saved her life from the blow of anaxe. After putting on the black sturdy boots, Lily opened the smallcupboard that was hidden under her coat rack and disconnected thebackpack. It was her pride.

She strapped the pine wood case to her back;the leather padding settled itself quickly to the contours of herback like the hand of a lover. She tucked the flexible copper tubewith the ruby on the end in her pocket, hooked the whip to her toolbelt, grabbed the big umbrella and then she was ready. The mask wasin her other pocket, she always kept it there, but she would notneed that yet.

As she walked down the streets, none of thefew people who were out in the rain paid her any mind. They alljust wanted to get home and stay out of trouble and the rain. Lilyhad opened the big umbrella to keep the downpour away from her. Noneed to get soaking wet just yet.

Once she was several streets away from hersmall apartment she stepped onto the road, where she kicked theheel of one boot against the other. The compact mechanisms in thethick soles reacted flawlessly and raised her up four feet. Shestarted walking again, now with the long strides her artificiallyextended legs made possible. Walking faster than a regular personwas forbidden on the sidewalks, but walking in the street like thisusually was a pain, with carriages and cars getting in the way.Good thing there was hardly any traffic now.

Soon Lily reached the area she had read aboutin the newspaper. She stopped at the side of the road and put themask on. It hid most of her face, and contained the special lensesthat helped her see clearly in the dark. As she moved the lensesinto place, everything bathed in a familiar green light.

In the area of Hurst Street and Ambly Road,the newspaper had said, a band of vagabonds made life of the peopleliving there very difficult, with muggings, beatings, fires,explosive devices and the like. Several police officers had alreadylaid down their lives trying to capture the thugs. That had beenenough for Lily.

She didn't care much about property, but whenofficers were dying in the line of their work, like her father andher uncle, that was where she drew the line. She wiggled her toesto make the elevation mechanism slide back into the soles of theboots. She wanted to attract the vagabonds and standing out likethat would probably have the opposite effect.

Lily stepped onto the battered sidewalk. Thattoo bore the marks of the vagabonds. She closed the umbrella andpulled up the collar of her coat. Lily tried to decide which way togo first. A loud bang and a tremor beneath her feet helped her. Shewalked back to the crossing of Ambly and Lowell and turned intoLowell Road.

Three people came running towards her. It wasunclear if they were the vagabonds or their victims, so she hid inthe doorway of the house she was in front of. Some shouting and afew shots later, she heard the bullets fly, it was clear that shehad seen victims run.

Lily counted the seconds. Too long,experience told her. The running folk should have passed her bynow. They had probably been in the way of the bullets. The streetwas silent again, so Lily moved out of the shadows. Immediately shesaw the bodies lying in the street. Perhaps, she hoped, they wereonly wounded, not dead.

The left glass in her mask, which had heatseeking abilities, did not show any significant cooling down ofeither body, but that meant nothing: they had been down for only afew seconds. Slowly she folded up her umbrella and hung that fromthe tool belt. The people on the ground, she found, were alldead.

The vagabonds had moved on. The street lightsassisted the lenses in showing Lily the desolate place that wasLowell Road. Cars and carriages had been blown to smithereens orburnt to crisps, windows were shattered, some had been hastilynailed shut with pieces of wood, and there were many cracks in thepavement. She could almost smell the fear that lived behind theclosed windows. A few loud bangs, shots from firearms again, toldher where the vagabonds had progressed to, so she started walking.They could not be far; as the vagabonds considered themselvesmasters in the area, they would not be in a hurry.

Lily turned into the first street she cameacross. There a group was standing, as if they had not a care inthe world. Most of the street lights here were off. Damagedprobably. The light-enhancers in her mask showed her six men, alldressed in torn, ill-fitting suits. In a reflex her hand slid overthe rad-gun that was under the coat, making sure it was there.