The Lady Machinist (Curiosity Chronicles Book 1) by Ava Morgan Read Free Book Online Page A

now to return to the palace. He’d have to meet King Sabba and Nikolaos on the way. At least this served as an excuse.
    His writing instruments waited for him on the solid mahogany desk. Rhys attempted to push his close encounter with Lydia from his mind as he slid into the chair. He proceeded to draft additional terms to the purchase agreement. He scribbled the new terminology onto a sheet of parchment, hoping the COIC’s solicitors would have little to find fault with. Lydia drove a hard bargain with her lofty demands for licensures and guarantees.
    A gob of ink spurted from the tip of the pen, rendering his sentences lost in a black pool. Rhys crumbled the parchment and started again with a fresh sheet. He gained a notion at that moment, one that he wished he thought of in the cavern when he was too distracted protecting Lydia from her own mechanical creation. Too busy ministering to the wound upon her soft skin.
    He finished the second draft without incident from the pen. After blotting and fanning the ink dry, Rhys stuffed the parchment into the envelope containing the original agreement and sprang for the door.
    Lydia could insist upon her own way, but even she would not be able to refuse these new terms.
     
    #
     
    The demonstration began on time. Rhys stood on the beach with King Sabba, Nikolaos, Malcolm, and a handful of the palace guards. He watched through protective lenses as the automatons moved about, firing low-grade artillery at a distance.
    Lydia’s voice reached them through the brass speaking trumpet she used to command the automatons. She ordered the front line to send incendiaries out. Sand kicked up from the resulting blast to land unnervingly near.
    Rhys felt a rough tug on his sleeve as Malcolm backed away several feet. “What is it?” he asked when he was sure they couldn’t be heard over the din.
    “I don’t like the looks of this. You want to transport those volatile machines on the ship?”
    “That was the whole point of saving room in the cargo hold.”
    Another round of incendiaries exploded. The blasts sent tremors through the ground.
    Malcolm bared his teeth at the automatons. “Supposing a breaker shakes one of their gunpowder cartridges loose? Or one explodes and leaves a gaping maw in the hull?”
    “ The Enlightened faces risks every time it transports cargo. This is no different.” Rhys said the words and knew them to be only half-true. Just that morning he came close to having an automaton’s metal hands clamped around his throat. Should that happen on the ship, he couldn’t very well fire a gun below deck to stop it.
    Only Lydia’s distinctive voice would have an effect.
    Across the beach she stood behind the defensive line of automatons. The wind assaulted her hair until curls fell over her brow. She hardly noticed as she issued another command for the soldiers to open fire.
    A mortar hit the ground seven yards from Rhys’ feet. The device blasted sand and pebbles into the air. Rhys covered his head as debris pelted his arms and rolled into the opening of his shirt collar. “Well, I did ask for a demonstration.”
    Malcolm cursed. “The crazed lass did that on purpose.”
    Rhys could neither prove nor disprove him. “At least she gave us protective lenses.” He brushed sand from the goggles strapped around his head.
    Lydia came running to him, barely acknowledging King Sabba and Nikolaos, who stood far enough way to get no more than sand in their shoes. “I didn’t expect that mortar round to land so close to you.”
    Rhys hid a smile. She must have read Malcolm’s mind. “No harm done. Automatons can’t always be perfectly controlled.”
    Her eyes flashed at his hinted reference to earlier in the Guild. “I’ll tighten their trajectory. Are you sufficient as well, Mr. Clark?”
    “He’s fine,” Rhys answered for Malcolm. “In fact, the bosun inquired about transporting your soldiers aboard the ship. I told him that you’ll make sure to prevent any