Welcome to the Steampunk adventures of Gold Detection. Over nine weeks, we will travel to the very edge of madness and death with our esteemed heroes! Check back every Monday or Subscribe to receive my writing in your Inbox.
If you would like to start from the beginning:
Part One - Wherein we meet our heroes and listen to a strange and eerie invitation.
Part Two - Our heroes attend a night out with a veiled lady and watch a concert by the ghost of Chopin.
Part Three - A small interlude as the Golds prepare for the party.
Part Four - Our protagonists meet the Black Banshee and its uncanny creator.
As the Gold’s steam-driven carriage arrived at the Blackburn estate, Kate saw how the mansion itself rested right up next to train tracks.
“Private tracks,” Maximus mused as he helped her out. “I had heard that Blackburn was working on a secret project right here on his ancestral estate, but I had no idea that it was an engine.”
Kate began to reply, but an unholy scream broke the hustle and bustle of people moving in and out of the mansion. Everyone stopped, and many put their hands to their ears as out of the east came a pitch-black locomotive pulling matching cars. The train moved toward the setting sun, and Kate could swear that it was devouring the very light of the world as it moved into the station. She had never seen a metal that black.
The horn sounded again, and she remembered that the monstrosities name was the Black Banshee. She understood why as the scream faded once more. The horn sounded more like a human shriek than a train whistle. She wondered what would make the thing sound so horrifying.
“Perhaps the modifications to the engine,” Maximus said, reading her thoughts, “has reshaped the classic train whistle. They say that the native fears the sound of the iron horse. Perhaps they will fear Blackburn’s beast even more.”
“You know what they say about those who hear a banshee’s scream,” Kate replied as they walked the concrete path to the mansion’s entrance.
Maximus laughed as they moved forward into the growing group of St. Louis’ elite citizens.
The small group of around twenty was ushered quickly into the mansion. Kate spied many that she knew by name or at least by reputation—the mayor and his wife, Dr. Albert of the history museum and his star pupil, and possibly lover, Isobel. Every major manufacturing area was represented, including Maximus for steamships and steel and Blackburn himself for the railroad.
Maximus directed their steps through the crowd with small courtesies, and Kate could tell that her husband walked with a specific purpose.
“There he is,” Maximus said, more to himself than to Kate. She looked to the right and spied Major Richard Blackburn dressed in a black suit with a black tie. Lafayetta stood beside him, swathed in a dress of sheer black material, complete with a shroud that hid her visage completely.
“They look like a mortician and his hired mourner,” she commented as they moved toward them. Maximus was too intent on getting to their host to reply.
Blackburn greeted the two with a friendly smile and open arms. He took Maximus into an embrace and kissed his cheeks in the European style. “Maximus Gold, my dear boy!” He said as he broke off the embrace.
He quickly moved to Kate, who, not wanting the same embrace, quickly held out her hand for a shake. Blackburn took the hand, turned it palm down, and kissed the top of it. His dark eyes never left her face as he bowed into the kiss. “Kate,” he chided. “The Western woman is still not tamed by the city life of our dear St. Louis.”
“I find this city to be more like the wild west with each passing day,” Kate replied, amused and a little frustrated that she was still known for her birth in the West even after years of marriage and city life.
“Oh, yes!” Blackburn replied. “That bloody business with the killer machine and now your disfigured rebel.” Blackburn shook his head from side to side in mock disapproval. “The socialite snoops are becoming quite the household name.”
Kate was about to reply that they were not calling themselves by that moniker and that the man had been a Union soldier and deserved some respect when the woman in black stepped forward and extended a thin black arm toward her husband.
“We meet again, Mr. Gold,” came the low and rusty voice. Her shroud moved a little as her words pushed through.
Maximus took the hand and kissed the boney knuckle. “Dear, Lafayetta. I hope you will grace us with a show of your mediation this night.”
Kate was surprised to see Blackburn’s hand quickly lock around the woman’s wrist and pull her back. She caught a glimpse of anger in his eyes, but it was quickly replaced by the smiling light of a gracious host.
“Oh,” He told the startled Maximus. “We have something very special prepared for this wonderful evening.”
Maximus, undaunted by the quick and small violence, moved the conversation into his reason for searching out his host and the strange medium who was his ward. “I was hoping,” He said, “to pick your brain about astral projection. I have been experimenting with it, but I cannot seem to get anywhere useful. There is potential there. I knew it as soon as I saw your ectoplasmic residue power that toy. Yet, I cannot fully grasp how to harness the energy.”
“Let us sit next to each other during the meal, Maximus,” Blackburn said as he took Lafayetta’s arm and turned to join the crowd. “As I had hoped after our time at the theatre, you and I seem to be kindred spirits.”
Maximus began to reply but stopped short as the crowd stepped through a back hallway and out onto a boarding platform built eloquently onto the back of the huge manor. There was a collective gasp as people’s eyes moved over the huge black locomotive known as the Black Banshee.
Thanks for reading and taking this adventure with me! Move on to the exciting Part Five.
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The Black Banshee was first published in a slightly different form in the anthology - Machina Mortis: Steampunk'd Tales of Terror. Pick up the book for some other great stories.