Hearts of Smoke and Steam Read Online Free PDF Page B

Sarah to the American Museum of Natural History, years ago.
    He smiled at the realization that the long, dull hours spent gaining an education were occasionally useful, just as his teachers had always told him they would be.
    But there was, thought Nathaniel, something very wrong with the color of the man's skin. “Are you a negro, sir?” he blurted out, earning a harsh stare of rebuke from the Industrialist.
    “We've barely even given him a chance to introduce himself, and already you're questioning the man's racial heritage?” Alexander shook his head and sighed. “I must apologize for the boy's rudeness, sir.”
    King Jupiter laughed. “No no, it's quite all right. The color of my flesh is something I've had to live with for a long time now.” He lifted off his crown, revealing a bald head underneath. “I'm not embarrassed by it anymore.” Like the rest of him, the skin was the color of black smoke, his eyes pure white. The features of his face were broad and heavy like someone of Saxon descent.
    He walked up to the table and placed the golden crown in front of Nathaniel. “And the answer to your question young man, is no.” His wide smile revealed a row of teeth that shone out so brightly against the darkness of his skin they seemed to glow, “I am not a negroid. My family was French aristocracy. The Revolution forced them to relocate to the United States or face the end of their bloodline by guillotine.”
    So much for his theories of Germanic heritage…Nathaniel looked at the headpiece. It was enormous. He reached out a hand to touch it, and then stopped. “Do you mind?”
    Jupiter shook his head. “Not at all. Feel free.”
    When Nathaniel wrapped his hand around the metal circlet, it was warm to the touch. He lifted it up to feel the weight of it. “That's real gold, isn't it? It's heavy.” And it was clearly too big to fit on his head.
    “Shakespeare said, ‘Heavy is the head that wears the crown.' But to be honest, you quickly get used to it.”
    Nathaniel looked up into his eyes, and the man held his gaze easily. He had to admit that even if Jupiter might not be a real king, he had the natural charisma of royalty—and the bloodline! “So then the color of your skin has something to do with the origin of your miraculous powers.”
    “If I may say so, you're as clever as I've been told, Mr. Winthorp.” King Jupiter stepped back a few feet and pulled off one of his thick purple gloves. Revealing the dark hand underneath, he held it out for Nathaniel to examine—the fingernails were moon white. “As you can see, my skin is normally gray in color, except for my eyes, teeth, and nails.” He took his index finger and pressed it into the exposed skin on his chest. As he did so, white lines began to radiate outward from around his fingertip, creating an aura of crackling light. “But I can actually gather the energy under my skin, which turns it white.” He pressed harder, and the field began to grow in size. “Until recently, I have to admit, it all came with unpredictable and rather painful results.”
    He slowly lifted up his finger, and as he drew it away, the energy jumped out from his flesh, crackling back and forth between his fingertip and the surface of his skin. But at the same time the circle was growing smaller, clearly being consumed by the sparks. “Over time I've begun to learn how to draw out and manipulate the energy.” He moved his entire hand in a waving motion, and more white energy leapt out from his chest, turning his fingers entirely white and leaving behind a black spot on his torso.
    He held out his hand for Nathaniel to view once again. Now it had turned white from the tips of his fingers down to the middle of his palm. “Having discovered these new abilities, my natural instinct was to explore how to channel them.” He clenched his hand into a fist and squeezed it so tightly that it began to shake. White lines climbed up his arm until the entire limb had changed to