Free Clockwork Heart: Clockwork Love, Book 1 by Heidi Cullinan Page B

focused his attention on Johann. “I need to ask you some questions. I need you to answer me honestly.”
    Grimacing, Johann put his hands on the desk and nodded. “Yes. I answer everything.”
    Excellent. Now what did Cornelius ask? Are you here to steal the heart? Obviously not. He tried to think of how his mother would handle it. She could smile and get anyone to reveal anything. But Conny didn’t feel like smiling, and he wasn’t good at playing like Elizabeth. He was as terrible an actor as she was a tinker. So he searched for an opening query that wouldn’t give too much away but would hopefully give him a decent foothold to start.
    “How did you make up all that information about sky pirates and hooks?” The question, once out, released a host of others behind it. “I didn’t even know any of that. Is it true? What if Valentin had known you were lying?”
    At first he thought he must have used too many unfamiliar words because Johann didn’t say anything, but just as Conny was about to attempt to clarify, Johann spoke. “I was a pirate.” He cast a sad glance at Cornelius. “Not pretend. It is as you said, almost exactly. Except you didn’t find me when they leave me. The Austrian Army did.”
    Cornelius sank into a chair, mesmerized. “You…truly were a pirate? A sky pirate?”
    Johann nodded. “When I was sixteen. The army is bad. When I die in the army, they send my family no money. I become pirate, I maybe live longer. Make more money. Send it home.” He shut his eyes, looking decades older than eighteen.
    That would make an excellent question also. “How old are you, really?”
    “Eighteen.”
    Cornelius’s shoulders slumped. “Truly?”
    Johann frowned. “This is bad?”
    Cornelius blushed. “I’m twenty-four. Twenty-five next month.”
    Johann blinked. “You look young. More young than twenty-five.”
    “ You look thirty. But I suppose that comes with war.” He rubbed his chin, acutely aware now of how little facial hair he had to the thick stubble Johann could grow by midafternoon. “Were you truly recruited at fourteen? That seems so young.”
    “Younger is better, they say.” He made screwing motions around his head, but his gaze was cold and almost angry. “Fix our heads. Make us think like army.”
    “Did it work on you?”
    Johann’s nostrils flared, and his jaw visibly tightened for several seconds before he replied. “War is wrong. War kills children and mothers and innocents.” He gestured to the window. “People here are kind. They want war? No. People in my village? No. People in castles? Yes. War is not for people. War is for—” he stopped and fished through the dictionary, “—politician.” He huffed. “It is almost the same word in German.”
    Cornelius scooted his chair closer. “What happened the night I found you? I’ve never asked, but…I need to know. Why were you on the barge? Why were you the only one alive?”
    Johann settled a little, more tired and sad than angry now. “They send—” He stopped to think. “They want us dead. They tell us try to win, but everyone know we will die.” He checked the dictionary again. “Distraction. We were distraction. Your army kill us like animals very fast. Except me, I am not dead during distraction, only very hurt.” He touched his nose. “Pretend. I hear stories about French. Take our bodies, make us soldiers with clockwork parts. So I think, better to die with brothers than be monster. They put me on barge with the dead. But then I wake with clockwork anyway.”
    Cornelius put a hand on his arm. “I’m so sorry. I would never give you to any army. I detest war too.”
    Johann patted his hand. “Is good. You are good doctor.”
    Cornelius blushed. “I’m just a tinker. Tinker-surgeon, yes, but I’m no physician. Not by a long way.”
    “You are the best doctor I ever have.” Johann let go of Cornelius. “That is what happened. You set me free from Army and fixed my broken body. I thank you.