Prudence (The Custard Protocol 1)

Well, thought Rue, at least I made somebody’s evening.

The sky train Ganesha might look like a creature of Hindu mythology come to awesome mechanical life, but inside the guidance cabin was all classic British engineering. It was actually a rather simple, an old-fashioned steam engine out of the Poedunkle-Boof Manufacturing Company in Bacon End. Rue’s eyebrows arched as she read the plaque – it was a decade or more out of date! It’s been a while since the far reaches of the empire received upgrades. This is nothing compared to Quesnel’s domain back on The Spotted Custard. She stopped that thought before it started. Rue did not want to think about Quesnel. Given the catastrophe that her evening had become, he had not been as far from the truth when he had tried to stop her from starting all this.

The firebox was cold and dead which was odd as, even overnight, most steamers simply banked their coal. Also, the boiler was half full, hardly enough water for much of a journey. Perhaps there was a watering station on the other side of Tungareshwar?

Rue was undaunted. All she had to do was get everything up to temperature and the steam going, make certain all her dials, levers, and settings were configured correctly, keep the firebox stoked, and the elephant head would move. Actually, that’s rather a lot. Fortunately, she had flint and tinder with her.

It took some time to stoke the boiler. The moon had moved a great deal since she started her escapade – the night was near half done. Eventually, she did manage the happy bubbling and steam emission of an operational engine. It was not easy to guide the Ganesha and stoke at the same time. Luckily, the elephant was inclined to stick to the cable although it did rattle a great deal. All steam engines by their nature need at least two people to run efficiently. With only one at the helm and stoking the boiler, the locomotive moved in fits and starts along the cable, an embarrassing stuttering that to any observer would seem as though the elephant god was overcome with occasional malaise. Not to mention that it was merely the head of the creature, with no body following behind.

If her thievery of the front of the sky train had been noted by the crew sleeping in the freight cars, Rue couldn’t hear them shouting over the clanging of the engine. And if they had tried to jump the coupling, they were unsuccessful, for no one came after her. Some distance along, Rue took a moment to open the door and crane her head back to see, and there was no one following.

She stoked the boiler and jerked onward. She had no concrete plan except to take the Ganesha on into Tungareshwar’s heart. Hopefully, there she might see or receive some sign.

Rue developed a pattern of stoking, checking her dials, pumping the guidance lever and glancing out of the two windows. Occasionally, she cracked the door and looked down into the forest, hoping for an inkling of Percy or Miss Sekhmet, not certain what form that inkling might take. After all, she was the only one with the fire sparkler. And if there was a path beneath her, it was overarched by trees.

After an hour or so of stoking, Rue was beginning to think her arms might never recover from the night’s experience. And I still have to climb back down. She considered stopping next to one of the poles, but her stubborn streak kicked in and she soldiered on.

Idiotic stubborn streak as it turned out. Because on her next check of the cable ahead Rue realised several things at once.

First, there was no more cable.

Second, the upcoming pole was her last and she was moving too quickly towards it.

Third, the boiler had been cold and the water reserves low because this engine wasn’t meant to go anywhere at all. It was meant to test the stability of the line at each stage of installation.

Fourth, that was why it was so antiquated. As it was only there to check the cable, they had used cheap old technology.

Fifth, the man in the cabin to whom she had appeared as a goddess was not an engineer but a guard.

Sixth, no crew would be chasing her because there was no crew.

Rue realised all of this even as she grabbed for the break lever, hauling back on it as hard as she could with a strength mere moments before she would have believed impossible. If only she had a second person to cool the boiler, to rake back the coals. Alone, her best option was a mechanical one. She hoped the lever wasn’t too old. Her arms screamed in pain almost as loudly as the brake screamed in reality.

The Ganesha head slowed. The brake locked down, no longer requiring Rue’s measly strength. The engine shuddered against it. Freed suddenly, Rue dived for the firebox. Grabbing the rake, heedless of her own safety, she pulled the coals out into the slop grate, although part of her knew it would not be sufficient to cool the boiler. A few embers fell to the floor of the cabin, scorching Rue’s bare legs. She hardly noticed.

The firebox was empty and the brake had managed to slow the elephant head, but not enough. With relentless precision Ganesha crawled towards the last pole, after which the cable dangled down like a limp snake.

Rue slammed open the door and looked for a second parasol parachute – nothing. At a complete loss of what else to do, she grabbed her sparkler and dipped the fuse into the slop grate, aiming for a still smouldering coal. It lit. She leaned out of the door and threw it as hard as she could up into the air.

She heard its loud bang and the forest below lit up with a flood of yellow light. Everything was in sharp and sudden relief, the vibrant green of the trees extending endlessly in every direction, every leaf painfully clear. Rue could see the end pole with its builders’ scaffolding, obviously in the middle of construction, coming relentlessly closer.

And then Rue saw something she wasn’t expecting. The face of an extremely unfriendly-looking monkey pressed upside down to the window of her cabin.

Rue screamed and backed away from the door, slamming it shut.

The monkey creature swung over the top of the elephant head with consummate skill, performing a flip that put him on the other side of the door. A door he proceeded to rip off of its hinges and discard casually into the jungle below.

Well, I call that unnecessary. The door has a perfectly good handle.

The creature swung through the opening to land gracefully on the floor facing Rue.

He was much bigger than a monkey should be and stood fully upright like a human, but with more muscles than any human Rue had ever seen – except maybe one strongman at a carnival. He had very long arms and an extremely articulate tail. He was wearing a loincloth of expensive blue silk, a breastplate of beaten gold, and a great deal of jewellery.

Rue stared at him, open-mouthed. Impressed despite herself. Well, golly. I guess Vanaras do exist.