Fall of Sky City (A Steampunk Fantasy Sci-Fi Adventure Novel) (Devices of War) (14 page)

“Hmm. Wha’ was your plan had you been able to escape on your ship?”

“It was not my ship. We would work until we found safe harbor, and then I would radio the
Yusrra Samma
and we would be safe.”

“What is a yus-rah sah-mah?” Yvette asked.

“Synn’s home,” Keeley answered quietly. “It’s where he grew up.”

“So let’s find that and land there.”

“It is an airship,” Haji said.

I snorted with laughter at the idea of landing on an airship, then winced as pain shot through my head. This beast was huge, and from the sound of the motor, heavy.

“
Je n’comprends pas.
” I don’t understand.
“
That, we should be able to land on. We just need to hope it is long enough.”

“Ye’re thinking of an airboat, Yvie,” Joshua said. “Airships are a quite different lot.”

“We could—”

The world rocked around us.

Everyone stopped talking.

Another loud explosion rocked the air beside us, and the plane tipped before evening out again.

“We’re under attack,” Joshua shouted.

“Are there any weapons?” Haji asked. “Cannons?”

“We weren’t done yet,” Yvette said, her voice high.

“And we were never meant to fight,” Joshua finished.

Another explosion jerked us hard, leaving behind a high pitched whine.

“You’d better strap in, people,” Joshua shouted. “We’re hit.”

Keeley was muttering about something, and there was a lot of clicking.

“We no longer have anythin’ to debate,” Joshua said calmly, his bird whining and wheezing. “We’re goin’ down now. Dear Mother of Dirt, don’t let us die today.”

CHAPTER 12

NO LANDING GEAR

When
an air vessel is going down, there’s one place you don’t want to be, and that’s in a cargo space tied up with no harness. Headache or not, I wasn’t going down without a fight.

I pushed with the strength of my will until the throbbing subsided to a distant dull roar, and my eyes were cognizant and functioning. I searched for something to cut the ropes.

There was absolutely nothing and, of course, I was in my uniform from Sky City, which meant that I had no weapons. Glancing at the ropes, I realized they were metal anyway. They weren’t budging, and as I struggled, they only got tighter.

That damn Joshua.

I slinked to the doorway and crawled over the raised metal step.

Another explosion rocked us.

“Climb up,” I shouted.

“What do ye bloody well think I’m tryin’ ta do?” Joshua shouted back. “Do you want ta try drivin’ this thing?”

I paused in the short hallway between the cargo bay and the cockpit. There wasn’t a lot of space.

“Yvie, Kee, go below and make sure the lab is buttoned up tight.”

The two girls stepped over me to do as they were told.

“Way to be useful, Synn,” Yvette muttered.

I glared at her and raised my hands. “Care to unbind me?”

“You’re not going to do anything stupid, are you?” she asked.

“Any more stupid than doing nothing while we’re being shot out of the sky?”

“Hmm.” She pulled out a long metal stick and touched the ropes at both my hands and feet. “Don’t make me regret this.”

I nodded and scrambled to my feet, stepping over the last raised, arched door frame.

“What can I do?” Haji asked.

“Don’t know yet, lad. I need eyes,” Joshua yelled as another shell rocked us. “What’s goin’ on down there?”

I stared past my feet, which were standing on glass. “This is brilliant.”

“All compliments are appreciated,” Joshua said, “but currently not helpful. What’s got us?”

I stared below, and saw only the occasional wisp of a cloud and water.

Nope. That’s not entirely right. A flash followed by a plume of smoke.

“
Lethara
,” I exclaimed. “Bank portside.”

“What?” he demanded.

“Left,” I shouted. “Bank left! Now!”

He took the two-handed wheel and pulled the shaft it was attached to in the direction I called. The repercussion pushed us a little. We evened out.

“Go higher.”

“I’m tryin’, you dolt, but we’re an engine short and we’re too heavy.” He pointed to one of the many gauges in front of him. “We’re losin’ elevation.”

“Then we dump cargo,” Haji shouted before heading for the back.

“No!” Joshua didn’t look away from his control panel. “We fought too hard for those damn supplies.”

“And now they’re going to drag us down.” I nodded to my friend and pushed him out the door.

Another cloud trail plumed seemingly from the middle of nowhere.

“Star—Right!”

“Why are they firin’ at us?” Joshua grunted as he pulled up and to the right on the wheel.

“Don’t know. We wouldn’t have known they were even there if they’d just—” I stopped myself as I saw what appeared to be a flock of black birds appear from nowhere far below us. “Nix. Birds. We’ve got birds in the air.”

“We have nothin’ to fight them with.” Joshua searched the span of glass beneath his feet. “Holy dirt lovin’ pigs.”

I shook my head. “What do we have?”

“Hand pistols,” he said. “A lightning gun and—” He paused to look at me.

I raised an eyebrow. “Did you get it ready?”

He nodded. “It’s below in the lab, but, Synn, it’s not tested.”

“Where’s the lightning gun?”

“Armory’s all down below.”

I nodded. “Watch for the bursts of smoke and try to stay out of the way of the other birds.”

“Likely they want ta take you in.”

“You know Nix,” I said quietly. “I doubt she’d appreciate her most treasured possession falling in the hands of anyone else. She’d rather kill me.”

Joshua shook his head. “We’re gainin’ altitude.”

Below us, we could see several crates falling through the air.

“What a bloody waste. Get out of here. Get weapons. Keeley’ll show ye some openings ye can use. Go!”

I hopped over the lip to the door and then again, and searched for anything that would lead down.

There, on the other side of the large bay. I ran toward the metal grate stairs that zigzagged up and down, and headed down. At the end of the hall was a double arched door. I could hear the girls talking to one another, their voices heightened.

Keeley looked wild and scared. “Synn, what are you doing?”

“Weapons,” I said shortly, scanning the tables and shelves of the room, trying to ignore the dull thud-thud-thud in my brain.

“Right,” Yvette said, her hand on one hip. “And we’re just going to allow you to have a weapon, knowing that you’re compulsed and likely trying to kill us.”

“Killing you is not a good idea.” Found them. I walked through the room, around Keeley, and pushed one table aside to gain access to a glass case of pistols and guns. “We would all crash and likely die. The only smart thing to do is to ensure that the stupid birds don’t somehow shoot us down and take us all out.”

“Birds?” Yvette asked.

I nodded. “Planes. There’s dozens of them.” I turned to her, a lightning gun in both hands. It was heavy. “You want to see if you can hit something other than us?”

She glared, her black lashes encircling her violet eyes, and reached out to yank the gun out of my hands. “Extra cartridges.”

I glanced down and cringed. There weren’t many. I handed her two. “Keeley, Joshua says you know where we can go to use these?”

Keeley grabbed a large, multi-barreled gun and led the way.

I grabbed the other lightning gun, the other two cartridges and my pistol. It looked shiny and hopefully, this time, it would work.

Haji met us at the top of the stairs of the cargo bay. “Tell me someone has a plan that does not involve dying.”

I handed him the lightning gun, my gaze flashing with the thumping in my head. “We’ll need one lightning gun up top, if we can, and another down below.”

Keeley gave the directions where to find the top hatch to Yvette and similar instructions to Haji. She turned to me as they disappeared. “What about us?”

“One on each side, if we can.”

She shook her head. “There’s one tail side and another just below the astrodome.”

“The what?”

She rolled her eyes and gestured to the front of the plane. “The cockpit. In the hallway, there’s a door on the floor. Pull up. There’s a few covers you can pull back and use.”

“What were they for?”

“We were planning on using them for guns.” She turned and ran toward the back. “Now go!”

I rushed to the front of the bird and followed her instructions. Sure enough, there was a small rectangular door on the floor of the hallway and when I lifted it, I found a compartment underneath.

Joshua twisted around to glance at me. “We’re gaining altitude, but I don’t know for how much longer. The other engines won’t take it.”

I nodded. “Weapons are in place. Just keep us flying.”

He turned his attention back to doing just that.

I jumped into the compartment underneath.

It was cramped. I had no idea who they thought they were going to get in there with a weapon of any real size. I laid flat on my belly. One of the two ribs of the compartment jammed uncomfortably into my legs, and I was fairly certain the other one was trying to take out my spleen. I opened the exterior hatch—

—and wished I had a pair of goggles and a flight hat. The wind whipped my hair around my face, making it impossible to see. I closed the hatch and rose. “Goggles,” I yelled. “I need goggles.”

Joshua reached down beside him, picked up a leather flight hat and threw it over his shoulder.

It missed me by a couple of arm lengths.

He pulled the goggles off his face and threw them my way.

He at least got those closer.

I scrambled to put both of them on, and scurried back into my cubby hole. I could get claustrophobic quick.

This time when I pulled the hatch, my hair wasn’t the issue. Breathing was. I’d had plenty of experience breathing at high altitude, but not this high and not at this speed.

It was brutal.

But I didn’t really have time to worry about it. The birds were on us and buzzing around fast.

They made a few flybys without shooting at us. I wasn’t sure what their goal was.

That didn’t last long.

Joshua did a pretty good job dodging the bigger artillery. I didn’t recognize most of the stuff they threw at us. I’d never seen it before. There were big tubes that zoomed through the air so close I felt the wind of their passing. Then they would just explode in the middle of nowhere, hitting us with the repercussion.

The planes moved so fast. It was as if we were moving at super slow speed. I tracked one, but lost it before I could get a bead on it.

The world rocked and tipped starboard with another ricochet.

A second bird whizzed by. This time, I pulled the trigger—

—and nothing happened.

Crap!

“Joshua, what did you do?” I popped my head out of the hole and shouted. “Did you take the copernicium out?”

“No,” he ground out, pulling hard on the control wheel, trying to regain the altitude we’d lost. “I just reduced it. Find somethin’ else.”

There was nothing else. I slipped back into my hole, shook the pistol, and found another target.

There was more than just the one.

I pulled the trigger, ready to get out of there, when veins of lightning lava exploded from the weapon. It hit my intended target, then his wingman, and destroyed a third.

I released the trigger and blinked, the pounding in my head doubling.

Big gaping holes of molten metal scarred each of the planes as they fell toward the sea. Fast.

I popped my head out. “This is fantastic!”

“That’s bloody awesome, Synn, but get these things off me!”

I rolled my eyes and ducked back in.

There were dozens of them.

I picked them off by twos and threes. There were birds falling out the skies all around us, so I guessed that the others were just as successful. I grinned through the pain, watching my port for another target.

We tipped starboard again from another repercussion blast.

My window was empty.

Another blast knocked us down and starboard.

Dirt!

I closed my window. “They’re herding us!”

“You gathered. Get them off my tail!”

I set the pistol aside and pulled myself out of the tiny compartment. Picking my pistol up again, I ran to the tail of the plane where Keeley was. She stood at one of two open hatches, her multi-barreled gun pummeling the air behind us.

Come back to me.

I doubled over, trying to push Nix’s voice out of my head. How could I hear her? The pain increased as I straightened and headed toward Keeley again.

She glanced at me. “I can’t reach them!”

I rubbed my tearing eye, looked out the window and sighted down my pistol. There were eight birds behind us. They were sleek, slim of body, only able to hold maybe one person, and had wings that flapped smoothly, with a working tail.

Smoke plumed out from one of them. A black dart rushed toward us, skipped along the top of our plane. It toppled in front of us and exploded, sending us closer to the sea.