Chapter 25: Frederico – An Old Woman’s Ambitions
‘Give me that wrench,’ said Frederico. He was examining the connection between the locomotive’s two machines.
Menior gave Frederico the tool. The two of them had met by accident because Frederico had arrived three days earlier than the Old Woman had told him to. Three things drove him out of Beloú before it was time:
1. Faust needed space;
2. Frederico had the idea of using an old armour, the one that was once too big for him, to replace the rusty part on the boiler;
3. That grey thing that inhabited the other side of the wall and didn’t let Frederico sleep.
Menior seemed uneasy speaking in front of Frederico. He massaged his bald head then tried to smooth his beard. Frederico pretended to be focused on the Eliana, but his ears were tuned to the black rider.
‘Go on,’ said the Old Woman. ‘You said King Henrique stopped sending soldiers to Fabec.’
In the silence that followed, Frederico imagined Menior smoothing his beard again.
‘Let him listen,’ said the Old Woman. ‘It is time Frederico knows what is going on throughout Franária.’
Frederico kept on fixing the parts, but his movements were slow so he didn’t make a lot of noise and could pay attention to what Menior had to say.
‘Debur is still in revolt,’ said the bearded horseman. Secretly, Frederico called him messenger, like the Messengers of Sátiron.
‘It’s been going on for three years,’ said the Old Woman.
‘Henrique is terrified. He has unleashed the army on the streets of Debur.’
Frederico came out from under the Eliana’s locomotive.
‘The king sent his army against his own pepole?’ he asked.
‘And the army is now divided,’ said Menior. ‘One part is still loyal to the absent captain, Neville of Baynard. Another part obeys the king. And there is a third part that doesn’t really know what to do. Debur has became a stage for skirmish, ambush, soldiers against small rebel militia groups. Meanwhile, Henrique is still locked inside the Emerald.’
Frederico stood up. Menior and the Old Woman discussed Franária as though they weren’t part of it. He wanted them to do something, to end the war and reunite the country. They had power, they had color.
‘What are you going to do about it?’ he asked.
‘We’re educating you,’ said the Old Woman.
‘Me?’
The Old Woman hugged the blue book from Sátiron.
‘Frederico, you are so great,’ she said. ‘The truth is you are too great. We are here, trying to save Franária, and you are there, rebuilding a Stanton locomotive. You might find Sátiron one day. Meanwhile, Franária withers.’
Frederico almost lost his balance. What did the Old Woman want from him? If she didn’t mean for him to dream with trains, why bring him face to face with a Stanton locomotive, second generation? Why feed his heart with books? He wanted to question the Old Woman, but she fell asleep, hugging the blue book, her favourite, and the only one she couldn’t read.
‘What does she mean by that?’ he asked Menior.
‘My role is only to report,’ the messenger said. He handed Frederico another book on engineering.
‘Nobody’s role is only to report,’ said the prince.
Menior froze, holding the book in the air.
‘If you report and I don’t understand,’ said Frederico, ‘then it is your role to explain. Communication doesn’t happen when the message is delivered, it happens when the message is received and understood.’
After an instant, Menior said:
‘She saw an opportunity in you. You broke the rule of kings, soldiers, death. She thought that, if you are correctly taught, you might change the future of Patire and possibly the future of Franária.’
Frederico, change anything? He, an opportunity? All he wanted was to spend the rest of his life studying the Eliana. He took the new book from Menior’s hands and gave him a piece of paper with notes.
‘Could you deliver this to Rimbaud next time you cross paths with the caravan? Tell him to bring me these materials next time he goes to Beloú.’
‘What is this drawing?’ Menior pointed to what looked like a cylinder with an opening for a pipe.
‘I think it’s called a crosshead. It should connect the piston and this big metal part that makes the main wheel.’
‘How do you call this part with the shaft?’
‘I don’t know. The last book you brought me was in Anjarian.’
Menior left, and Frederico knelt beside the Old Woman. So she had a plan for him. She thought that his being a prince of Patire, Frederico had some choice in the future of War.
‘I don’t have a voice,’ he said. ‘Only nightmares.’
