Cold Copper: The Age of Steam (35 page)

“H
old your fire!” Alun Madder called out loud enough Rose thought his voice could be heard in the next county. “We have found the children gone lost in this town. There will be no shooting.”

The gunmen hesitated.

“My baby!” a woman cried out. “You found my baby.” The woman was short and thin, with dark hair caught back under a blue silk-flounced bonnet. She broke out of the crowd and ran toward the children surrounding Rose.

The woman plucked up a little boy and pulled him into her arms, standing there rocking and murmuring comforting words.

Then a flood of people came forward, pulling their children toward them, crying, hugging, holding. More than one man clapped Hink on the shoulder in thanks as they walked by; more than one man shook hands with the Madders.

Rose found herself overwhelmed by the surge of happy people, and did her best to see that the children fell into the hands of family and loved ones. The sheriff was surrounded by townspeople and was receiving congratulations too, and several of his men had youngsters in their arms.

The gunmen were fathers, brothers, and uncles. They put their guns away.

The Madders stood near Rose, staring at the sheriff across all the happy people.

The sheriff glared at them. But he couldn’t just shoot the men who had solved his city’s greatest mystery, couldn’t kill the men who had brought happiness back to families who had been wrapped in grief.

The Madders looked like three pleased foxes who had dined on prized hens.

The sheriff holstered his gun.

Rose was relieved that the children had been found and returned. But there was still more that wasn’t settled. The children weren’t talking. None of them seemed to even recognize their families.

Something was missing. And she wasn’t the only one who noticed. It began as a small murmur. One or two people asked their child what was wrong. And then it grew. They knew. They knew their children might be there in body, but that some part of them was still lost.

“What the hell now?” Hink muttered.

“It’s the kids,” Rose said. “Some Strange has a piece of them. We haven’t found it yet. Haven’t found the Strange. Well, haven’t had a chance to look for it. I thought…I thought you were dying, so I just ran.”

“Sheriff,” Cedar said. “May I speak with you?”

Rose looked over and was shocked to see both Cedar and Wil Hunt striding down the road. Wil had on borrowed pants and boots, one hand rested in his coat pocket as if he carried something there. His grin was wicked and his eyes glittered.

Seeing the two of them together, as men, was such a rare thing, she had to admit to being a little caught by the sight of them.

They were of a height and build, though Wil was leaner and narrower than his older brother. And whereas Cedar Hunt looked like he could bear the weight of the world’s troubles across his wide shoulders, Wil looked more the type who might enjoy stirring up that trouble.

The brothers passed Miss Dupuis and Wicks, and Cedar told them both to get aboard the ship that hovered to one side of the ruined church. Neither of them argued, though Wicks opened his mouth, but closed it quickly when Miss Dupuis tugged him by the arm to the
Swift
’s ladder.

The sheriff met Cedar in the center of the road. Close enough Rose could hear them over the townsfolk and airship fans.

“We came to this town with no animosity toward the town or these people. And though my companions have been jailed, and escaped, it was to do this great good. To find the children of this town. And if you want the children to laugh and grow and thrive, to have their reasoning minds, you will let us go.”

“What game are you playing, Mr. Hunt? Are you holding our children’s minds hostage for your release?”

“It seems I am.”

Rose glanced around. She couldn’t believe Cedar was standing there blackmailing the sheriff. She slipped her hand in her pocket and wrapped her fingers around her gun.

“Is there some kind of guarantee you’re going to give me?” the sheriff asked. “I’m not about to let you fly off on the strength of a promise.”

“Keep us here and those children will never recover.”

The sheriff frowned, glanced over at the children, many of whom just stared straight ahead.

“We’ll stay behind as collateral,” Alun Madder said. “My brothers and I.”

“No,” Cedar said.

“Now, now, Mr. Hunt,” Alun said. “You should know better than to turn down the best offer you’re going to get. According to the law, there’s still some reason Sheriff Burchell here might want to keep us. We’ll stay while you see to the children’s needs. And when it’s clear those children are once again their normal selves—something I encourage you to do quickly—then Sheriff Burchell will uphold his side of the bargain and let us all go.”

The sheriff nodded slowly. “You belong behind bars.”

“As you may have noticed, bars can’t hold us,” Alun said. “We will leave your town and give our promise to never return.”

“Agreed,” Burchell said. “Let some other lawman see you swing.”

“Just so,” Alun said happily. “Off with you, Mr. Hunt. If you do your job correctly, we’ll see you on the outside of town.”

Rose tugged on Hink’s hand and hurried with him to the
Swift.
The Madders always had a plan. She knew that if they had to, they’d find a way to get away, even if the sheriff wasn’t true to his word. And it appeared Cedar knew that too.

Rose climbed the ladder to the
Swift
as quickly as she could with a bum arm, Hink right behind her. He hollered for his crew to lower the basket.

Cedar and Wil helped Father Kyne into the basket.

Then Rose was up in the hustle and hurry of the ship, that beautiful, sweet ship, hugging Mae and helping to work the wenches to get Father Kyne aboard. She glanced up to see her airship captain walk up the narrow interior, already more steady on his feet as his hands grasped and released the ship’s metal framework, like a blind man gently stroking the face of a long-missed loved one.

Last into the safety of the ship came Wil, who was smiling, and Cedar Hunt, who looked exhausted and in pain. He took hold of one of the metal bracings and leaned against the wall a moment, breathing heavily from his climb.

She had never seen him so ill before.

“Tell us where to fly, Mr. Hunt,” Captain Hink said. “So we can put this town behind us.”

“A warehouse,” Wil said. Only it wasn’t Wil’s voice coming out of his mouth. Rose shot a glance at Cedar.

“Listen to him,” he said. “The Strange saved the children from following the Holder’s call and drowning in the river. But they put their bodies in that cave. Their minds are trapped with the Strange.”

“Strange are keeping the children’s minds?” Mr. Wicks asked.

“Oath given,” Not-Wil said. “To free your own. To free my own.”

“I don’t understand,” Miss Dupuis said. “What is…is that even Wil speaking?”

Cedar pulled himself together with what looked like extreme effort. He walked over to stand by his brother. “It’s not just Wil. I have a promise to fulfill. To free the Strange. They’re somewhere in this town, trapped.”

“And all he can tell us is they’re in a warehouse?” Miss Dupuis said. “There must be hundreds of warehouses in this town.”

“I know where they are,” Rose said. She pulled the broken battery out from under her blouse and held it out so Wil could see it. “Are they trapped in something like this?”

Wil’s eyes went wide and his lips pulled back in a snarl. He took a step toward Rose, reaching for the battery. Cedar clamped his hand around Wil’s wrist and Wil stopped.

“That looks like a yes to me,” Captain Hink said. “Take us northeast, Mr. Seldom,” he said. “Toward the airship field. Look for boxcars on a side spur with a warehouse to the west.”

Captain Hink’s crew scrambled to see to his orders and Rose took hold of a metal bracing, setting herself for the welcome speed of the ship beneath her feet.

C
aptain Hink spotted the warehouse from above. There weren’t any airships in the immediate sky, nor did there seem to be men moving about down there.

Not that either thing would matter. He was tired, hungry, and in pain. He wanted the hell out of this town. If that meant turning the
Swift
’s cannons on the buildings below, or burning it to cinders, he wouldn’t shed a tear.

“Is this the place?” Cedar asked.

Hink glanced over his shoulder. Cedar wasn’t asking him. He was asking his brother, Wil. Or whatever it was that was looking out from Wil’s eyes. Hink had seen a lot of afflictions in his life, but whatever it was that made it so that Wil Hunt was standing among them in man form set his hackles rising.

Wil was looking out the window. He nodded. “Yes. Dying. Trapped.”

“I’ll set them free,” Cedar said. “As I promised.”

“You won’t do it alone, Mr. Hunt,” Hink said. “Seldom, bring her around to the south.”

“There’s no need for you to accompany me, Captain,” Cedar said.

Cedar looked like he had aged a hard year since they’d been in town. He didn’t know what illness the man had picked up, or if it had more to do with whatever business he and his brother had gotten into
with the Strange, but the man was clearly not at his best. All the more reason to hit the air trail. Soon.

Hink reached up into the overhead storage bin and pulled out several half sticks of dynamite, which he shoved in his pocket.

“The front door’s on the east side,” Rose said, coming up beside Hink.

“Ain’t planning to go in the front.” Hink strode past her to the door. “Mr. Guffin, lower the winch line.” Hink pushed the door open and stepped out on the running board, holding the deadman’s bar as he leaned out, looking for the covered loading entrance they’d been escorted out of earlier this day.

Spotted it. He ducked back in. “That’s it. Hold here,” he said to his second. Then to Cedar, who stood no more than three feet away from him, “You aren’t going down there alone. I trust my crew with the ship, the witch with the father’s injuries, and Miss Dupuis to dealing with the problem of Wicks.”

“Problem?” Wicks called out from halfway across the ship. “May I remind you—”

“No,” Hink said, “you may not.”

“You don’t trust me, Captain?” Cedar asked in that low dangerous way that made Hink wonder just which of them would come out breathing if they ever happened upon a serious sort of disagreement.

“I trust you,” Hink said. “Not so sure I trust what’s looking out from your brother’s eyes. You aren’t going down there alone, and I’m not staying behind to argue.”

Hink kicked the ladder out the door and climbed down it at speed.

The Hunt brothers were right behind him. Moving a good bit slower, which provided Hink with time to grab hold of the winch line—a sturdy chain with a locking hook at the end—and walk it with him over to the closed-over entrance in the ground just outside the warehouse.

“Right down there.” Hink adjusted his hold on the line, making sure there was plenty of slack between it and the
Swift
.

“Have you been here before?” Cedar asked.

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“What’s down there?”

“I’ll show you.” He didn’t set the hook. Instead, Hink lit a stick of dynamite, tossed it at the boards that covered the ground, and then he and the other two men stepped back.

The explosion was enough to shake the
Swift,
but not so much as to send anything high enough to hit her.

“Down there is where the Strange are trapped,” Hink said. “Let’s set them free.”

He strode through the rubble, down the sloping road that led to a door, which he shot the locks off, then into the huge underground chamber filled with copper wires, tanks, rail lines, and dark tunnels.

“There,” he pointed at the wall of glass-and-copper globes, stacked up nearly two stories high, with Strange skittering behind curved glass.

“Son of a bitch,” Cedar breathed.

But Wil walked over to the wall, silent.

“Wil,” Cedar warned.

“Don’t worry,” Wil said, and it was him, just the man, not the thing inside him. “I’m not going to touch them. What in hellfire is this for?”

“Trapping the Strange,” Cedar said. “Using them.”

“There must be hundreds,” Wil said.

Hink strode over with the winch line. “More like thousands. Stand aside, gents. I’m going to shut down this horror show.”

Cedar and Wil both moved back while Hink latched the hook to the center bar holding the shelf to the wall. He then proceeded to wedge two sticks of long-fused dynamite at each end of the shelf.

“You’re just going to blow it up?” Cedar asked. “What makes you think the devices will break?”

“Rose threw one just like these at a man and the glass shattered. I’m thinking that’s exactly what will happen here. Especially when I have the
Swift
rip the shelf off the wall.” He lit the fuses. “And now it’s too late
to argue. Out the road and up the ship,” he ordered. “Unless you want to wake up in hell.”

Hink jogged for the door counting off the seconds left on the fuse. Wil was already running that way, and Cedar was not far behind them.

Five…four…

Hink whistled, one piercing blast, and then he motioned the brothers onto the ladder, jumping on the bottom of it just as the
Swift
lifted for the sky.

Three…two…

Her fans strained as she angled down and south, the winch-line chain pulling tight.

“Up!” Hink yelled. “Faster!”

Cedar and Wil flew up the ladder. Hink crested the top and was pulled aboard by Rose and Wicks.

One…

“Full throttle!” he yelled.

The explosion pounded at their backs just as Mr. Guffin released the winch line and the
Swift
tilted into the sky.

Wil stood in the door of the ship, staring back at the billows of smoke coming out of the warehouse.

“They are free,” Not-Wil said.

“And so are the children,” Cedar said.

“Good,” Hink panted as he shoved back up onto his feet and made toward the front of the ship. “Mr. Seldom, take us up high and head back toward the church. We have one last problem to deal with.”

“But what about the Madders?” Rose asked.

“They’re the problem I’m talking about.”