Год мехов принца-двоечника

Prologue: The Night of the Revolution

On the night of the revolution, the fountains of the royal palace ran backward.

When the wet nurse shoved Klaus out through the secret passage, the frame Dawn Eclipse was still kneeling in the courtyard, like a suit of armor that refused to go dark. He turned and called its name. It lifted its head. The lamps in its eye sockets flared once, and then the smoke swallowed them.

Five years later, the academy gates of the new kingdom stood taller than the palace. His false name was on the list of those who had failed. He thought that was just as well.

Chapter One: Steam Wandered Into by Mistake

The steam pipes at the entrance ceremony blew the changing-room doors out of order. Klaus pushed the wrong one. Heat and a cry of alarm poured out together.

Princess Lina smashed a towel into his face. "A washout who can't even read a doorplate!"

He ought to have withdrawn at once. But beneath her collarbone he saw an old scar, shaped like the royal crest from five years ago. That scar made him forget his manners.

"I'm sorry." He pulled the door shut and set his back against the wall. His heartbeat was louder than a frame's engine.

Chapter Two: Dawn Eclipse

Dawn Eclipse had walked here on its own that night.

It crouched on the hill behind the academy, like an enormous cat that knew its master. Klaus laid a hand on its muzzle. Light ran from the eye sockets all the way down the spine.

"You still remember the name," he said quietly.

A whimper like an engine rolled through the frame's throat. Far off, the academy's searchlights swept the ridge, as if searching for a prince who should not exist.

Chapter Three: The Princess's Terms

The terms Lina offered were simple: enter the frame duel at the academy festival. Win, and she would act as though she had never seen the baths or the hill behind the school. Lose, and she would hand over his true identity.

"You look very much like a dead man," she said, watching him. "I have seen a dead man's face. The night of the revolution. Beside the fountain."

Klaus did not deny it. "Then please allow this dead man to fail once more, Your Highness."

Lina laughed coldly. "Failing is allowed. Losing my academy is not."

Chapter One: The Childhood Friend's Kindling

His childhood friend Eve was kindling in the hands of the old dynasty's remnants. They had bound her in the hangar beneath the duel stage. The moment Klaus's frame started, the fuse would catch.

He walked into the hangar and did not start Dawn Eclipse. With his hand alone he pinched the fuse out. Eve wept and cursed him. "A prince should not touch fire with his hands."

"A washout may." He untied her. "The frame will wait for me. Fire will not."

Chapter Two: The Washout's Crown

The duel was fought all the same. When Dawn Eclipse leapt onto the stage, the whole hall saw the washout's false name shatter on the scoreboard and reveal, beneath it, the royal name that had been struck through.

In the frame opposite, Lina raised her sword and did not bring it down. "Set the crown on your own head. All I need is for the academy to still be here."

Klaus nodded. The two frames landed side by side, as if the night of the revolution had been set running again as the end of a school day.

Final Chapter: The Frame Still Remembers the Name

After the academy festival ended, Dawn Eclipse lay asleep on the back hill. Klaus peeled the false name off his nameplate, then stuck half of it back on.

"Remembering the name is enough," he said to the frame. "As for the crown, leave it to the people who know how to approve papers."

Lina came up from the foot of the slope and tossed him a new nameplate: scholarship student. Not prince.

The fountain in the academy flowed the proper way. This time, no one ran backward.