Clockwork Menagerie: A Shadows of Asphodel Novella by Karen Kincy

waited for a lull in the activity before stepping inside. The technomancy equipment he needed should be in a storage room at the back. That lab assistant, Heinrich, spotted him. “Archmage Konstantin!”
    Had no one bothered to tell them the bad news?
    Konstantin ignored Heinrich’s hopeful grin. He needed to get the equipment and get out. Hands sweating, he fought with the lock on the storage room, then realized he had the wrong key. Those damn bells kept ringing.
    “Sir?” Heinrich hovered at his elbow. “How can I help?”
    “Take this to my cot.” Konstantin handed him a suitcase of nonessentials—he wouldn’t need a change of clothes if he were dead.
    “Yes, sir!”
    Konstantin cringed. Was he ever this overenthusiastic as an intern? Heinrich acted like this were a field trip, not an attack by the Imperial Russian Army. The key clicked in the lock. Inside the storage room at last, he hunted down the equipment required for his experiment in revenge: gauntlets for focusing the temporal magic, as well as the unorthodox, unsafe catalyzer he had been tinkering with on his days off.
    Most crucial of all, he needed a portable source of energy.
    Konstantin glanced over his shoulder. The oldest of the Eisenkriegers, a battered prototype nicknamed Fritz, waited along the wall. Damn, the Archmages of Vienna would definitely have his head for this.
    But there wasn’t a better way. He stacked the equipment outside the room, marched over to the Eisenkrieger, and unlatched the cockpit. Everything seemed to be in order. He scooted around to the hatch in the back, estimated its capacity, and grabbed the catalyzer. His arms strained under the weight of steel and glass.
    Of course, one of the pilots recognized him.
    Natalya Volkova’s boots rapped on the steel platform. “Archmage Konstantin.” Her Russian accent, however slight, always took Konstantin by surprise, even though she had proved her loyalty through years of service.
    “Volkova.” He nodded. “I just returned from Russia.”
    “Do we have orders to move out?”
    He kept his back toward Natalya, so she wouldn’t see him blush. “I’m commandeering this Eisenkrieger to investigate.”
    She cleared her throat. “You need a pilot?”
    “No, thank you.” He strode back to the storage room, snagging a pair of protective goggles before carting over an armful of wires. “Need to do reconnaissance on the Russians. Saw a clockwork eagle on the way over.”
    “Christ.” Natalya thinned her lips. “Tell us what you find. The pilots need to know.”
    Konstantin loaded everything into the back of the Eisenkrieger before climbing into the cockpit. He lowered himself into an exoskeleton, a harness of steel and buckles linking the pilot’s body to the machine. When he slipped his feet into the boots and straightened, his head knocked against the back of the cockpit.
    “Stupid tiny prototype,” he muttered.
    Vienna insisted the size of the cockpit wasn’t an issue; they kept hiring women as pilots. He gave a longing glance to the Colossus, though he could hardly steal
that
without all hell breaking loose.
    When he twisted the key in the ignition, the steel giant woke from its slumber.
    Humming vibrated from the Eisenkrieger’s engine as it warmed. He dusted off the glowing green dials and checked each of the twitching needles. Everything seemed to be functioning within normal parameters.
    Her arms folded, Natalya peered at him. “Stay safe.”
    Guilt twisted his gut. “You, too.”
    His plan sickened him: escaping with an Eisenkrieger before battle. If he succeeded, however, he could save them all.



neumatics groaned and hissed as Konstantin walked the Eisenkrieger from the laboratory. Infantry marched in field-gray uniforms, the color offering more camouflage than Prussian blue. Their swords glinted in the sun, a testament to the Hex’s ability to negate gunpowder. Bullets wouldn’t kill on today’s battlefield. The Archmages of Vienna promised the German