Heart of Steam & Rust (Empires of Steam and Rust) Read Online Free PDF Page A

proof.”
    Her stomach roiled in full revolt now, despite her efforts to quell it. “Please,” she said, almost desperate, “tell me...!”
    “It came to me in a dream, a revelation from God, I am sure. This other world, this place which was dying but yet not dead … surely it must be the connection between life and death. Surely you see the advantage such a location could offer to people like us, Ivanova? Surely you can see the power it could supply? Surely you can see how, in such a place—in a world closer to God and the source of magic—a powerful practitioner like myself would become even more powerful? With such mystical energy right at hand, a man might accomplish anything !”
    Lina swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry.
    He grinned at her, showing twin rows of crooked teeth, his eyes gleaming. “Fortunately for you , my dreams proved correct. You had the great luck to be killed just when I needed to test my theory.”
    In his mind, Lina saw her dead body again; she felt his glee upon the viewing—the delight that he would now get to test his theory.
    “You took me to Rust...”
    “On the train, yes!” He swooped about the room giddily now, though his glee had nothing to do with the alcohol.
    “On the doctor’s train,” she hazarded.
    “Irrelevant! He and his machines were merely the conduit for my grand experiment.”
    Her risky probe had the desired effect, shaking loose not only another image of “Herr Doktor,” but a name as well: Freund .
    “Of course,” she said by way of putting Rasputin back on track. “He’s only a tool in your hands … as are we all. All save the Empress.”
    “Yes.” The mystic saluted the mention of his ruler and downed the contents of his glass once more, only this time he threw the crystal into the office’s unlit fireplace. The glass shattered into tiny fragments. “And are you honored to be my tool, Ivanova?”
    “Of course.” She felt his eyes on her now in a way that she hadn’t before. So he wasn’t completely disinterested in sex. She fought down another shiver as his thoughts overlaid his memory of her dead, nude body with her current living, breathing one. The combination excited him. She felt a fire start in the mystic’s loins and knew she needed to get him focused on something else. “You wouldn’t have brought me back if I weren’t useful to Mother Russia. But I still don’t understand how you did it.”
    His mind returned to the pride of his accomplishment.
    “I took your body to the world of Rust, and there I performed certain rituals,”—she tried to read them, but he held the secrets too close—“and summoned your soul back to your body. Can you imagine the thrill I felt at my success?”
    She did , almost as if she were Rasputin himself, the emotion flowing from him was so powerful.
    “Your soul’s return trip was far shorter there than it would have been had I attempted to resurrect you here,” he said. “Plus, you were very recently dead. In all likelihood, your soul had not yet completed its journey. Thus it responded to my commands and returned to this fragile shell you call your body.”
    Lina’s head swam. His story didn’t make sense. She was not the Ivanova he had tried to summon—and, yet … She was here, and Rasputin believed what he’d told her with absolute conviction.
    “Of course, I cannot claim credit myself,” he falsely demurred. “All glory must go to God, the creator of life and bringer of death. I am but His humble servant.”
    “Praise God,” she answered weakly.
    “Indeed.”
    Lina felt sick inside. Somehow, this madman had trapped her mind in this body; he had ripped her from her own world and—across the land of Rust—brought her here against her will. It seemed impossible, and yet … Here she sat, living in another woman’s form, in a place and time in which she did not belong.
    She needed to get home, somehow … though she doubted Rasputin would help her. His gloating was palpable,