The Sublime Electricity
book IV
The Dormant
by Pavel Kornev
release - February 19, 2018
preorder now - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0789HHCB5
New Babylon is the capital of the mighty
Second Empire. Dirigibles drift over the city, steam trains race down its
tracks, and the factory chimneys never stop billowing smoke, even for a moment.
The hegemony of science is unquestioned, and yet magic hasn't disappeared from
the world. It remains dissolved in the blood of those who are called illustrious. Hardline reductionists find that hard to
accept, but it is not in their power to change the longstanding status quo.
Everything threatens to change with the
death of the widowed Empress, and Leopold Orso, an illustrious gentleman, can sense the looming changes
clearer than most.
He feels the draw of far-away lands, but
a gloomy past holds him in place like a deadly snare. Will the whirlpool of
coming events will pull our troubled illustrious hero to the very bottom or throw him up to
unimaginable heights? And will anything remain to throw him up to? It's
impossible to say. After all, there are highly placed conspirators willing to
do whatever it takes just to get what's theirs.
Bullets from hired killers, anarchists'
bombs, blood magic of Aztec priests and electroshock therapy in a psychiatric
clinic. Leopold will have a difficult time overcoming everything fate has in
store for him and remaining himself through it all.
A heart preserved in a tin can,
Begins to beat again.
Steamphonia
(Russian Steampunk Band), Heart
Part One
Target. Silver Bullets and a Smokescreen
Target. Silver Bullets and a Smokescreen
1
Any razor, in its essence, is akin to the ritual sickle of the Celtic
druids on the holy day of the renewal of nature. A pull of the hand and the
skin becomes clean, while the face grows younger as if, together with the
stubble, the weight of many days is hewn away.
I appraised my reflection in the mirror and nodded, agreeing with my
own judgements. After that, I shook the foam from the razor into the basin of
warm water, led the blade along my soaped-up cheek, and again - a strip of
clean.
For the last week, I hadn't bothered with shaving, so it was as if the
sharpened metal was carrying away time itself. I was growing younger right
before my very eyes.
By the way, there’s a good reason people say razors are dangerous: if
you get distracted, you’re sure to cut yourself.
I didn't get distracted. Someone distracted me.
