Page 26 of A Slipper in the Smoke
The door clicked open.
She repaired the rest of the mechanism, and, knowing that no excuse would work if she was found with her toolkit, she returned it to the workshop before stepping over the threshold, and slunk along the dark, dimly lit corridor.
The whir of gears and machines greeted her. Usually, the sound was comforting, like the voice of an old friend, but nothing like comfort reached her now. There was a coldness to the hum, a hardness that grated against her bones.
She steeled herself, and walked on, sticking to the shadows. The corridor widened, one of the walls giving way to glass. Elena froze. There was still time to turn back. She didn’t need to see—
Someone was coming down the corridor. Not thinking, Elena turned to the nearest door and rushed inside. She pressed herself against the shut door, praying that no one followed, that she hadn’t been spotted. The footsteps got closer and closer…
And passed, vanishing in the direction of the rest of the palace.
Elena took a deep, steadying breath, climbed back to her feet, and almost screamed.
The room was filled with dozens of metal stretchers, loaded with bodies, half formed, missing parts, some no more than malformed torsos.
Wires spat from their skin. There was flesh, but it was riddled with metal.
Nothing Snowdrop had told her could have prepared her for this.
Sound screeched away from her. Her voice vanished. Nausea sprung from her belly. She doubled over, waiting to be sick, but it didn’t come. After a few seconds of retching, she found the strength to stumble backwards, willing the sight to disappear.
No, no, no, it’s not real. It can’t be.
She backed into a desk. Papers slid to the floor, diagrams of how the monsters were made, how their makers had dissected muscle and put back metal in its place. Elena had scribbled thousands of similar blueprints in her time, but never withpeople.Wires and veins intermingled, steel and skin layered together. Cogs clicked instead of heartbeats.
This wasn’t science, this wasn’t progress.
This was an abomination.
Sound from the room next door. Something kicked into gear inside her, reminding her that she couldn’t be found, that she needed to get out.
But her feet wouldn’t move. She stayed where she was, gaze riveted on the demonic sketchings, unblinking, unmoving.
Hell is empty,she realised, remembering a line from a tale she’d heard long ago. The holy book? She couldn’t recall.
All the devils are here.
But here the devils wore white coats and spoke like humans, all the while taking people apart and turning them into something, something—
Else.
The handle on the adjoining door rattled.
Get out.A voice pulsed inside her.Get out, get out, get out!
Elena’s feet unlatched from the floor. She scrambled towards the door, hands shaking, wrenching it open and stumbling out into the corridor, heart in her throat. She slammed the door shut behind her, praying no one saw her, but barely caring anymore. As long as she got out, as long as she got away, she didn’t care about the consequences.
She hurtled down the hallway, through the entrance towards the workshop, into the room—
And straight into Pip.
“Evening!” he said cheerily. “How are you?”
“I… I’m…”
Elena stumbled, and her legs slipped out from under her. Pip rushed forward, steering her towards a bench at the side of the room and not letting go of her elbows.
“What’s wrong?”
