Cold Copper: The Age of Steam (34 page)

R
ose was glad the children did as they were told and were silent about it, to boot. She had managed to round them all up and lead them into the warehouse, which stored leather. It stank of old hides, the strong solutions it took to soften them, and the odd hickory smoke of meat and burnt hair curing.

But at least it was warmer in the shed. Rose gathered the children in a huddle close together on the sawdust floor. She wished they’d found a wool or cotton warehouse, or even a hay barn. Any of those would be warmer by far. Still, this was better than standing in the snow.

She brought over some of the supple pieces of leather, which were carefully folded and tied with twine, and draped them around the children to keep some of their warmth near their skin.

“Still mighty quiet,” Alun said as he helped drape some of the softer and warmer folds of leather over the children.

“So,” she said, putting her good hand on her hip. “How do we wake them up?”

“We’ll need to find the Strange that’s put them sleeping,” Alun said. “Could take days.”

“Months,” Bryn added.

“Minutes,” Cadoc said.

Rose turned to the youngest of the Madder men. “Minutes? Do you know a way to find the Strange?”

“No,” he said. “You do.”

“I can assure you, Mr. Madder,” Rose began, “if I knew how to fix all this, I’d be right about doing it—”

Cadoc tipped his head to one side, as if waiting to see if she caught on to the sense in his words.

She still didn’t understand what he was saying, but she suddenly didn’t care.

“The ship!” she said, tipping her face to the ceiling as if she could see through the boards and bracers there. “It’s the
Tin Swift
!”

She turned and ran toward the door.

“Thought the
Swift
was in pieces in a barn in Kansas,” Alun Madder said.

“She was,” Rose called back, already breathless with hope. “But you can’t keep her out of the sky for long. I’d know her fans anywhere!”

Rose ran out into the street and scanned the section of sky slotted above the buildings. That was the problem with a city grown so tall: it put its teeth into most of the sky.

She couldn’t see the ship, but she heard her.

And her heart soared with hope. Hink had said he sent a wire when they were on the train. He must have told Seldom to bring the ship.

If they had the
Swift
, they’d have a way out of this town. They’d have all the wide sky trails to ride, and the men and Strange in this snowed-down city wouldn’t be able to touch them.

The
Swift
could save Hink.

Rose ran. Ran toward the sound of that beautiful ship. She didn’t know, and didn’t care, that the Madders were shouting at her. She didn’t know, and didn’t care, that the children followed behind her, running as she ran, heedless and determined to save the man she loved.

H
earing the
Tin Swift
screaming through the sky was enough to make Cedar Hunt laugh, but the trouble with airships was trying to get their attention from the ground.

He didn’t have any of the bright orange flares Captain Hink always carried, and he was certain the sparse tree cover they were galloping through wasn’t helping their visibility any.

“Can you signal them?” Cedar asked Mae.

“Yes.” Mae urged her horse to the left, out of the cover of trees. Out where she’d be an easy target for their pursuers. An easy target for the crew of the
Swift
too, if they thought she was trying to shoot at them.

She tugged on the reins, pulling her horse up into a hard stop. Then she turned and lifted her hands toward the ship.

A small but bright yellow light flickered in her hands, growing larger until her entire hand shone like a small sun.

The
Swift
cut fans, swiveling in the sky until the port door, filled by the ship’s cannon, was bobbing just above Mae.

“Mae!” Cedar yelled.

A voice called down from the ship—the operatic baritone of one of Captain Hink’s crewmen, Mr. Ansell: “Howdy, Mrs. Lindson! Care for a ride?”

“Yes,” Mae yelled back. “The men behind us—”

“Don’t worry about them.”

The
Swift
wobbled in the air again and gunfire from the ship hailed down on the trail behind them. The rope basket dropped from the port door and Mae helped Cedar get Wil into it.

Then the ladder was lowered while the basket was being cranked back into the ship.

“Go,” Cedar said.

Mae started up the ladder and Cedar was right behind her.

Before they reached the wooden floor of the ship, before the sound of return fire from the men on horseback had finished its echo, the
Tin Swift
’s fans roared to life and the ship climbed sky, out of the bullets’ reach.

“Good to see you, Mrs. Lindson.” Mr. Ansell was short, rounded, and dusky-skinned. He was also the most nimble and sure-footed man in the air Cedar had ever seen. He offered his hand to help Mae safely into the ship. The basket with Wil in it was already stowed and latched tight. Wil rubbed his face, as if coming up out of a hangover.

“Even more pleasant for me to see you and the crew, Mr. Ansell,” Mae said. “How did you know to come here?”

“Got a wire from the captain a while back. Mr. Seldom put the last rivets in the
Swift
and we came right away. Didn’t expect to find you on the run. Welcome aboard, Mr. Hunt,” he said, offering Cedar a hand for the final step into the ship.

“Thank you, Mr. Ansell. Wil, are you all right?”

Wil nodded. “That was a hell of a thing.”

“Don’t suppose you’d mind manning the port guns?” Ansell asked. “We’re running a thin crew.”

Cedar glanced at the crewmen. The
Swift
was a small ship and usually ran on a skeletal five people, including the boilerman and captain. Aboard the ship there was only Mr. Seldom, Hink’s second at the helm; Mr. Guffin, a thin, pale, sad-eyed man with a mop of unruly yellow hair, who was locking the starboard door and stowing the guns; and Mr. Ansell.

“Happy to help,” Cedar said. “We know where Captain Hink is,” he added.

“So do we,” Mr. Seldom called back from the front of the ship. “Have a tracker locked on him.”

“Tracker?” Mae asked. “I don’t understand.”

“Some thing Miss Small cobbled together.” Ansell made his way to the navigation gear at the helm.

Mr. Guffin nodded his tousled mess of hair and stomped his way up toward the front too. “That finder compass has held straight as an arrow for fifty miles. Hell of a way to keep track of a person. Not surprised Miss Small thought it up. She’s got a head full of clever.”

“Doesn’t she just?” Cedar said with a smile as the ship shot through the air, over the town and dead set toward the church.

W
hen Hink could hear again, the first sound that reached his ears was a double-barreled shotgun racking a round about two feet from his head.

“You are under arrest,” the sheriff said. “All of you. Drop your weapons and get on your feet.”

The cannon blast had done just what Hink thought it might do. It had torn half the building off and left the other half of the church sagging dangerously. The stink of gunpowder, smoke, blood, and burning wood filled his nose and lungs.

They had been thrown out of the church and had landed in a heap about twelve feet behind it, wood piled on top of the four of them.

That made it easy for the sheriff and his men to surround them, and to point a rather impressive array of guns their way.

“I said, get on your feet.”

Hink looked for his companions. Wicks was already helping Miss Dupuis stand, but Father Kyne was unconscious again.

“The priest is hurt,” Miss Dupuis said. “He cannot stand.”

“Wasn’t talking to the priest, ma’am. You,” the sheriff said, “move. Now.”

Hink spit some of the dust and grit out of his mouth, poked at a
loose tooth with his tongue, then pulled himself up to standing. Blackness closed down around him as the world decided to set up shop out there at the end of a tunnel. He took a deep breath and the darkness pulsed back with the beat of his heart. He was pretty sure he wasn’t going to be conscious for long.

“Problem, Sheriff?” Hink asked.

“You broke out of my jail, tore it down, and released every criminal in custody. Then you beat up my men and spent the last hour shooting holes in the good people of this town. So, yes, I have a problem. But it ain’t no kind of problem I can’t solve with a trip to the gallows.”

“We are allowed due process of the law,” Miss Dupuis said.

“Law says I’m the due process,” the sheriff said. “And I say there’s plenty of room on the gallows for all of you.”

“Fine,” Wicks said. “We’ll walk. But if you plan to hang the priest, you’ll need to provide him safe transport there.”

Hink knew what he was trying to do. He was buying time. Maybe time for one of them to come up with a plan. Only Hink didn’t have a plan, and from the look on Miss Dupuis’s face, she didn’t either. While a long walk might jog some idea out of his head, more likely he’d just pass out halfway there.

Father Kyne groaned and lifted one hand, then somehow managed to get himself sat up. He glanced at the sheriff and guns, then up at Hink, Wicks, and Miss Dupuis. He seemed to put two and two together, and found a way to stand.

“Look at that,” the sheriff said. “Now we have all our ducks in a row. Walk.”

Hink took a step, saw Father Kyne nearly stumble, and reached out to steady him, but Wicks was already there.

“We’ll fight when the chance presents itself,” Wicks said quietly as Hink and he got Father Kyne walking again.

Hink grunted in agreement.

By the time they’d picked their way through the wreckage to stand in front of the sheriff, there was a buzzing in Hink’s ears he could not shake.

Not a buzzing, more like a high-pitched scream coming from somewhere far off.

They were shoved toward the road into town and got to walking. Hink was surprised the sheriff hadn’t just shot them yet. He must really want to give those new gallows a try.

Then he figured it out. Alongside the road stood long lines of people. It looked like half the city had turned out to gawk and stare at the escaped criminals. Women and men, reporters and workers, poor and old all drawn up tight together to see how the great jail escape ended, to watch the shootout, and probably clap and cheer the sheriff on while that beast of a cannon shot the old church to sawdust.

As a matter of fact, they started clapping now.

Beyond the clapping, that far-off buzz was getting louder. Annoying.

Hink lifted a hand to his ear, cupping it and frowning at the noise.

And then he knew exactly what that noise was.

“Oh,” he said quietly. “This is going to be nice. Real nice.” He grinned and lowered his hand, then stopped walking.

“Told you to walk,” the sheriff said. “Not stand there grinning.”

“Now why would I want to walk,” Hink asked. “When I have wings?”

And just like that, the
Tin Swift
swung down out of the sky, a quick silver bullet skimming the tops of buildings and threading the city like a needle through a patchwork quilt.

The ship came to a stop overhead, and Cedar Hunt’s voice boomed out over the growl of her fans. “Put your guns down and release them. Or we will open fire.”

Hink glanced up at the ship. Looked like Mr. Seldom had done the girl some good, and put in the flamethrowers they’d been talking about.
Flamethrowers that Cedar Hunt currently manned at the starboard door, aiming downward.

“Problem with a ship like that,” Hink said to the sheriff, “is she can be out of your range before you pull a trigger, but that flamethrower doesn’t have to be close in to do serious damage to all these nice folks gathered here. And neither do the cannons, dynamite, and guns her crew keeps on board.”

“How do you know what’s on board that ship?” the sheriff asked.

“Because I am that ship’s captain.”

“That so?” The sheriff spit to one side. “Then I know your crew isn’t about to kill their captain on the way to killing me.”

“You overestimate the morals of my crew,” Hink said. “They do what I pay them to do. And if I tell them to shoot, that’s what’s going to happen. Even if I’m in the way.”

Hink was ready to reach for the gun he had stashed in his coat. But before he could pull it, he heard his name shouted out.

“Lee!”

That was Rose’s voice. Rose’s voice calling over the roar of the
Swift
. But not from above.

Rose stood on the snow-covered road that wended away from the church, back the other way. She was staring at the demolished remains of the building. Her hat had gone missing and her hair was tousled free of its pins in a glorious tangle of brown and red.

One of her arms was slung tight and tied to her chest, and there was a bruise across her forehead. She looked away from the church and caught sight of Hink standing down the road a ways. Her free hand flew up over her mouth, as if it could hold back the half sob, half laugh that escaped her lips.

Then her hand slipped down, revealing her smile. And she ran. Straight toward him, as fast as she could, ignoring the men, the guns, the ship, ignoring everything. Running as if there were no time left for walking in this world.

Hink started toward her too, as fast as his injuries would let him.

The clack of guns racking rounds filled the air, but he didn’t care and he didn’t stop. Rose was running for him and he was running for her. Bullets wouldn’t keep him from that woman.

“Hold your shot!” the sheriff yelled. “Do not shoot! You’ll hit the children.”

Children?

Hink looked away from Rose. Sure enough, she was surrounded by dozens of children, none of them taller than her waist, most of them in nightclothes, and all of them running, just as she was running, right toward him.

And all the people on the street, men and women, rich and poor, crowded up to see just what was happening.

They cried out in surprise, in confusion and joy, calling their children’s names.

“Henry! Victoria! Donald!” Dozens of voices calling dozens of names.

Strolling along behind the bundle of blank-eyed children were the three Madder brothers, looking as if they were going on a walk round the park, not that they were returning to a town full of people who wanted to see them swing by the neck.

Hink wrapped his arms around Rose and she clung tightly to him with one arm, looking up at him.

“You shouldn’t have come back, Rose,” he said, near out of breath, his head pounding darkness into the corners of his vision again.

“I’m right where I intend to be, Lee Cage.”

“Well, isn’t this a pleasant sight?” Sheriff Burchell said.

“So good to see all the criminals come into the town, all the lawbreakers and justice dodgers, right here in one handy place. Looks like justice will be done this day. Men,” he said. “Fire.”