Read Lily Marin - three short steampunk stories for Free Online Page B

thing, she thought, for something
that was only meant for her throat. After taking a deep breath, she
tried to speak. She asked for water. It came out as if her words
were being mauled by a grinding stone, but at least she could speak
again. Somewhat.
    The doctor helped her drink again and checked
her throat, her eyes and her pulse. "You are just fine, Miss
Marin."
    "Will I be able to sing?" she asked. The
doctor could not understand her words at first, she had to repeat
them a few times.
    "Oh, certainly, certainly," he nodded, "the
voice is a delicate instrument, and we are treating it in a way it
is not used to, Miss Marin. This coarseness is a matter of time,
you will see and you will hear."
    "How much time?" Lily cracked. She knew she
was not very polite, but she did not want to hear the rasp that was
her own voice now.
    "A few hours at the most, Miss Marin." The
doctor did not seem to mind her terseness. "Are you feeling
well?"
    Lily started telling him again, with
considerable difficulty, about the shaking she had felt. As she
spoke, a strange dizziness came over her. She rested her head back
on the table, closed her eyes and hoped that the nauseating feeling
would quickly pass. Alas, it did nothing of the kind. On the
contrary...
    The young woman's body went rigid, all her
muscles seemed to be pulled tight from somewhere. She couldn't even
breathe anymore, as an invisible band around her ribs began to
squeeze all air from her lungs. Lily panicked, but could not do
anything about it, not even cry out for help. Balls of light
started a slow and nauseating dance before her eyes as pain coursed
through her very veins, pushed along by the irregular beating of
her heart.
    Her body protested against the air
deprivation by bringing a thundering roar to her ears which invoked
even more pain. Lily desperately wished to lose consciousness, so
this agony would end. Even death crossed her mind as a welcome
option.
    Suddenly everything was gone. The pain, the
noise, the stiff muscles. Slowly Lily raised her hand and touched
her forehead. Something cold touched her cheek; she opened her eyes
to see what it was and stared at a short chain, dangling from a
leather strap on her wrist.
    "Doctor?" she asked, looking around in the
room. The office was empty. The orange light coming in through the
windows told Lily that the day was coming to an end. But the good
doctor could impossibly have left her there, alone, bound to the
table?
    Lily looked at her other hand. The leather
strap was still on her wrist, and chained to the table. She lifted
her arm and pulled. It felt strange. She pulled a little more and
the chain broke with a loud snap. Confused, Lily sat up and stared
at the dangling chains. Then, slowly, she undid the buckles.
    "I am probably dreaming," she told herself.
"I can't break metal chains like that." In a sudden impulse Lily
pulled up her knees.
    The chains on the straps that were on her
ankles suffered a similar snapping fate as the ones on her wrists.
After taking off these straps also, she swung her legs over the
side of the table and grabbed hold. A wave of dizziness washed over
her. It was so violent that she had to lay down again, waiting for
the feeling to go away.
    After some time, Lily had no idea how much
but the receding sunlight still came in through the window, she
heard the click of a lock in a door. Carefully she turned her head,
fighting against the ghastly sensation in her head. The door to the
doctor's office did not open.
    "You are going mad, woman," she muttered to
herself. Then there was another click. And again the door to the
office remained shut. "See, you have clickings in your head." She
hardly noticed that her voice was almost back to normal.
    Click.
    Curiously, as this one had sounded so much
louder, Lily gazed at the door again. And this time it opened and
the doctor came in. His eyes found her immediately.
    "Oh, Miss Marin! You are awake! How
wonderful!"
    Lily wondered why he had to yell like he