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Coat of Scarlet: A Clockpunk Tale, Part 8

by Siri Paulson Read previous installments: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 By the time Niko’s airship approached its next port, Marius knew he could delay no longer. They had been skirting the Continent and were to come in for refuelling and reprovisioning at Porto, since Olissipona, the other major city in West Iberia, was occupied with rebuilding. Niko hid it well, but by the increasing frequency he was stopping by to ask about his coat, Marius knew he was uncomfortable without it. Whatever business he had in port, he wanted to wear the justacorps. To make himself recognizable? To project an air of authority? Some other reason Marius could not guess? Regardless, the coat was ready, and Marius was only fooling himself by continuing to work on it. He was a little anxious about how his amendments would be received. More, he could not shake the fear that once he handed it over, Niko would have no further use for him. The moments they had shared made him reasonably certain that this fear had little basis in fact, yet it proved remarkably stubborn. Gloriana’s earlier warnings about Niko would not leave his ears. He did not even know what language they spoke in Porto. Still, he could not bear to keep Niko any longer from the coat that clearly meant so much to him. So, early in the morning before he could lose his nerve…

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Coat of Scarlet: A Clockpunk Tale, Part 7

by Siri Paulson Read previous installments: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 For Marius, deciding to make himself a place aboard ship was rather easier than the doing of it. Gloriana was friendly enough, but Marius dared not rely on her alone to be an ally among the crew; her comments about himself and Niko had been sufficiently ambivalent to give him pause, and moreover, being ship’s quartermaster kept her far too busy to nursemaid a land-rat. The other crew members tended to either give Marius a wide berth or rib him mercilessly. At least they confined their ribbing to his haplessness aboard ship; Gloriana seemed the only one brave enough to give commentary on Niko. He could have ingratiated himself with mending, but he was still working on the justacorps coat until his fingers cramped. It had been worn long enough that the lining needed mending in more spots than just the one, and the cuffs needed turning. The attempted theft at the docks had not improved matters, for it had been both torn – again – and dirtied. After all that, he was determined to return it to Niko in better condition than it had come to him. So he found himself with no spare skills to offer, nor any but the most basic knowledge of the workings of the airship. The best he could do was keep out of the way during maneuvers and drills –…

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Coat of Scarlet: A Clockpunk Tale, Part 6

by Siri Paulson Read previous installments: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 True to his word, Niko did not approach Marius for the next three days. The airship gained her distance from the busy skies around the city and settled into what Marius learned was cruising height – below the clouds, yet above the birds. They were high enough that he couldn’t look down without wanting to evacuate the contents of his stomach. It was unjust, he thought; there was insufficient motion to merit seasickness, and yet here he was feeling weak-kneed and queasy regardless. Marius found himself a succession of out-of-the-way corners to curl up in, often with the justacorps coat on his lap for lack of a table. Several of the niches had the advantage of allowing him to watch Niko at work. The captain’s confidence and swagger had dominated Marius’s little shop. Here aboard ship, among his crew, Niko’s airs seemed not only fitting but necessary. Small wonder he had been so anxious for the return of his scarlet coat. Everyone on the ship seemed to have an outsized personality, from Gloriana on down to the little cabin boy who spouted facts about airships – and this one in particular – at every opportunity. Everyone, that is, except Marius, who could not help but wonder what Niko had seen in a plain, unassuming tradesman like him. He had asked for time to settle in; now he began to fear…

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Coat of Scarlet: A Clockpunk Tale, Part 5

by Siri Paulson Read previous installments: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 Marius leaned on the railing of Niko’s airship, watching the dock workers as they clung to the spire below and untied the ropes that had tethered the ship. On the deck to either side of him, pirates hauled the ropes in and coiled them with impressive precision. The air sacs swelled, and the sails filled. The vessel slipped away gently into the night. Behind, the lights of the city gleamed like cloth-of-gold; ahead were the more scattered lights of the countryside, and beyond that a wide velvet-rich blackness that must be the sea. Nobody had paid him any mind, once he understood to keep out of the way. The pirates rushed to and fro, climbing and hauling and shouting. Niko stood on the raised deck at the…stern?…of the ship like a veritable island of calm, only making gestures now and then, or speaking to a crew member who rushed off to convey his orders. He looked like a man who could pull off a scarlet justacorps coat – not flamboyant, but self-assured as Marius himself could only dream of being. Just watching the man made his blood quicken. Marius watched, fascinated, until he realized he was trembling with cold. Now he understood the long coat and woolen tricorn hat, which had seemed above Niko’s station, for all that he wore them well. The crew seemed warm enough, moving about in shirtsleeves, but he…

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