twine and tied it off neatly. There was more noise outside, with some bursts of gunfire and at least one explosion. “It’s about time,” the bookseller muttered, as he handed over my books. “Will there be anything else today, miss?”
“This should cover my reading needs for some time, though that might not be a problem if I’m trapped here.” I attempted a smile. “I suppose if you have to be trapped someplace when a revolution breaks out, a bookstore isn’t a bad place to be.” He didn’t return my smile.
The Mechanic returned a moment later, shutting and locking the door behind him. “There’s fighting over by the square,” he reported.
“Then I should go before the fighting spreads,” I said, unsure if my racing heart was due to panic or excitement.
He shook his head. “No, miss, I won’t have you going out into that.”
I put my hand on my hip. “Then what do you propose I do? I can’t stay here forever.”
He grinned at me. “Don’t you worry about that, miss. There’s a good reason they call us the Rebel Mechanics. We’ve got far more than steam engines up our sleeves.”
IN WHICH I AM REUNITED WITH AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE
The bookseller glared at the Mechanic. “You can’t show her that! It’s our biggest secret!”
“Well, unless you plan to adopt her, she has to get out of here somehow, and she can’t go by the streets.”
“You’ll take precautions?” the bookseller asked.
“Do I look like an idiot? Besides, she’s one of us. I’ve seen her before.”
With a deep, groaning sigh, the bookseller took a key out of the cash register drawer. He gestured for us to follow as he led us to the back of the shop. There, he unlocked a door and held it open for us. It led to a steep staircase going down into a basement. The staircase was unlit, so whatever lay at its foot remained a mystery. “Down you go,” the bookseller said.
“After you, miss,” the Mechanic said to me. He took my parcel so I could hold up my skirts with one hand and keep the other hand on the rail. The closer I got to the bottom, the darker it was. The Mechanic came behind me.
When he reached the bottom, he handed my parcel back to me, then he untied the kerchief from his neck and said, “Apologies, miss, but we do have to be careful.” He wrapped the kerchief over my eyes and tied it at the back of my head. “This isn’t too tight, is it?” he asked, his voice gentle.
“No. It’s merely disconcerting.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll have it off you in a minute.”
Even with the blindfold, I could tell when he lit a lantern. I wasn’t sure how he carried it because he took my parcel from me and tucked my hand into his elbow so he could guide me. He was a considerate guide, warning me when there was a step up or down and steering me around obstacles.
I tried to track each turn and how far we walked between turns, but I was soon hopelessly confused. I had a sneaking suspicion that he led me in circles a time or two to throw me off. Wherever he was taking me, it must have been a great secret.
At last, we entered what I presumed from the sound of our footsteps to be a large chamber. My guide removed my blindfold, and I saw that what I’d taken for an ornament in his top hat was the lens of a lantern. I thought that was remarkable, but then I noticed my surroundings.
I was in a first-class railway station waiting room—or, rather, what one might look like deep underground. There were rows of high-backed benches made of ornately carved dark wood upholstered with red velvet. Brass chandeliers dangled from a rough stone ceiling, and travertine tiles lay underfoot. The walls were paneled in dark wood to just above head height, with rough stone above that.
Beside the waiting area stood an odd vessel that looked something like a boat, with a pointed wooden prow and a curved glass window at the front. A steering wheel stood between the prow and the window, and there was a long, red-velvet-cushioned bench behind the window, with a single back down the middle, so the passengers would sit back-to-back.
A tunnel stretched ahead of the vessel, narrowing as it left the waiting area, with a set of railroad tracks leading down it. Behind the vessel at the far end of the cavern