On Discord Isle (40 page)

The Dray Engine ceased to pace. It froze from where it had been stomping some short distance away, then tromped back up toward the cave. Dirt and sand fell from the ceiling. The water of the thin stream outside jumped like raindrops bouncing off a hot skillet. Then a massive clawed foot slammed down to occlude the entrance.

Everyone froze. Hayes’s features shifted comically from righteous indignation to utter horror. Sergeant Cumbers opened his mouth to cry out, and Private Simon clapped his hand over it. The Salomcani pressed together back into the cave against a stack of crates that Fengel hadn’t noticed before. Natasha grabbed the parrot’s beak and tried to look unphased. Fengel made sure to meet the eyes of every person in the space, holding them a moment before moving on.

Gears whirled and pistons churned as the beast bent about. It gave a great bellows-snort, pushing steam down the ravine and into the cave, a hot, wet vapor that wafted up past Fengel’s legs.

Silence held for a long moment. Then the creature shifted again. It took one tremor-inducing step, then another, and moved slowly away from the ravine.

Fengel counted to one hundred, then folded his hands behind his back and met the eyes of the still-frozen crewmen. “As I said, there’s no reason to argue. That’s the mark of rash, desperate men. And we wouldn’t want to do anything
rash,
now, would we?”

He winked back at Natasha. She gave him an amused smile.

Farouk stepped forward. “We are at an impasse, then. We cannot kill you without you bringing that mechanical beast down upon us.”            

“You’ve an acute grasp of the situation,” said Fengel. He eyed the crates behind the men. “Let us move on to more pleasant matters. However did you all come to be in this hole?”

The varying crewmen exchanged awkward looks.

“We needed supplies,” said Simon after a moment. “We stripped the
Goliath
when we left like you said to, but as we fled the inside of the volcano, the Dray Engine out there was killing everyone, and most of it was lost.”

“It crushed Dawkins,” said Paine, his face white and his eyes wide. “Just stepped on him like it did that Voornish automaton. Flat like a bug! It grabbed up Riley Gordon too, when he tried to run, and ripped him in half.” He choked back a sob. “Harvey the carpenter and I had almost got away, when he cried out and fell over, clutching at his chest.” The midshipman closed  his eyes. “That monster still came over and stepped on him, just to be sure.”

Simon put a hand on the youth’s shoulder. Then he glanced back up at Fengel. “We’re all that’s left. When we got away, we thought we’d go to the
Salmalin
and see what they had. We found these rats”—he gestured to Etarin—“already tearing things apart.”

“Then they attacked us!” said the man. He glared at the Perinese private. “That monster killed all our fellows as well, and still you attacked us, stealing from the less fortunate like the dogs that you are.”

“You stole those supplies from honest Perinese merchantmen!” cried Cumbers.

“Honest Perinese?” snorted Jahmal. “Don’t make me laugh.”

“Gentleman,” said Fengel. He held his hands out until everyone looked his way, then pointed significantly at the ravine outside. Faintly, they could all hear the Dray Engine, still pacing about, looking for its prey.

The group quieted. “Anyway,” said Hayes after a moment. “They fled—”

“No, you fled!”

“You both fled,” interrupted Fengel. “The Dray Engine, right? You heard the Dray Engine coming out from the interior of the island, hid down here, and were just about to leave when we came in, yes?”

Everyone nodded.

“Well, why not just
say so
?” Fengel shook his head. Now that they’d all been talked down, it was time to try the next step.

He eyed the stack of crates behind the sailors. There were only a few, stamped with both Kingdom and Sheikdom insignia. It was easy enough to make out the contents.

“Let’s see...some dried fish, hardtack, of course, a satchel of onions, and some goat meat jerky.” He raised an eyebrow. “This is what you’ve been fighting over?

“We’re going to need it,” said Hayes. “At least until we can find a way to avoid that beast outside. Once next season comes, we should have it all figured out, and then the mango trees will be fruiting.”

Fengel gave them a piteous look. “Oh, lads,” he said. “You’re thinking of
staying
here?”

“Well, what else are we going to do?” asked Paine. “We can’t sail away. Both the ships are ruined.”

“I mean to do exactly that,” said Fengel. “And I’ll even take you along, though the way be perilous hard.” He almost felt Natasha’s glare at the back of his head; there wasn’t nearly enough food for two people in the cave, let alone ten.

Hayes leaned forward. “S’not going to work,” he said snidely. “We all know what you’re both really like.”

Sergeant Cumbers held up a hand. “Hold on, now. How are you going to leave the island?”

The sub-lieutenant rounded on Cumbers in surprise. “What? No!”

Etarin stepped forward from the Salomcani side of the cave. “I would hear this as well.”

“It’s not going to be easy,” said Fengel, cutting in before Hayes could speak up. “But there’s enough material on the
Goliath
. We can build a raft of longboats, and head back to the open ocean. It’ll take all we’ve got, and more than a few of us won’t survive, but it’s the best chance we have.” He met each pair of eyes. “We’ll have to work together on this, no Salomcani, no Perinese. Just us.”

The cave grew silent. Hayes worked his jaw, obviously fighting to find the words to express his outrage. Farouk stepped forward, looking past Fengel to Natasha. “Kalyon,” he said. “Does he mean this? Can you both do this?”

Natasha gave a bitter shrug. “I guess,” she said, rolling her eyes at Fengel.

“I don’t want to die here,” said Paine. The youth lowered the dagger he held. “I want to go back to the Kingdom.”

And just like that, they were his.
Capital
. There still wasn’t enough food...but they’d figure something out. “Excellent. Now—”

“No. No!
No!
” Hayes pushed violently past Cumbers and the Salomcani, past Fengel and Natasha and out the cave mouth into the stream beyond. “I won’t follow you!” he screamed back at them all. “I won’t be party to this
again!
”

Then he ran off.

The Dray Engine gave a thundering roar. It pounded through the jungle, growing closer and closer until the great brazen claws passed by, leaving a cloud of steam in its wake. Hayes screamed somewhere outside, the sound falling fainter as he ran farther away. The Dray Engine gave chase.

Fengel looked sharply back at the rest of his crew. “Hayes has inadvertently given us a chance. Grab the crates and follow me. We make for the
Goliath
. Go!”

Natasha was already outside, the ridiculous parrot still clutched in her hands. She scrabbled up the embankment they’d been hidden beneath. Fengel climbed after her, but only halfway up before turning back to watch as the others appeared. They followed him up the slope and into the jungle beyond.

They ran. The jungle seemed to fight Fengel as never before. Fern bushes tangled his feet and green vines snaked around his head. The darkness of the jungle canopy occluded vision, causing missteps and collisions with hidden palm trees. Even when they broke free into a clearing things were dark; the sun hid its face behind the volcanic cloud streaming up from the mountaintop.

The Dray Engine remained hidden, but it could still be heard. Thunderous footfalls shook the ground they ran upon and set the trees to shaking. Once or twice he spied its reptilian form distantly through the undergrowth. To his surprise he still caught the echo of faint screams; Sub-Lieutenant Hayes still lived.

His wife drew close as they neared the southern shore of the island. She appeared battered, but defiant, filled with tenacity as usual. The gaudy parrot she had held was gone, at the moment.

“Where’s your bird?” he asked.

She made a disgusted sound. “That thing.
Pfagh
. Threw it away.”

“Oh?”

“I shoved it down a burrow of some sort. Looked like a badger’s den, or something.”

“Ah.”

They focused on moving through the underbrush for a moment. The rest of the crew still trailed along behind them. As he stopped to get his bearings, Natasha reached out and grabbed his arm, forcing him face her.

“Fengel. How in the Realms Below are we going to survive with these worms dragging us down?”

He smiled sheepishly. Both of them knew that this was his doing, what he really wanted rather than what she did. “Well. I’m sure that something will come up.” He shrugged. “Besides. It’s very, very likely that most of us are going to be dead before we can even leave the island. That’ll balance the equation a little.”

She sighed and looked away before giving him a wry smile. “Whatever. I have to admit I’m impressed, though. I’d have just started killing them until I got my way.”

Fengel blinked. Neither of them had any weapons anymore. “What, with that bird?”

“Just so.”

They both broke out into laughter at the same time. He patted her shoulder and they moved on again.

The sun had set when the jungle parted to reveal the southern beach. Fengel gave a sigh of relief and gathered the others around. Miraculously, they hadn’t lost anyone. There were a few close calls, but the Dray Engine remained elsewhere on the island. Equally miraculously, Fengel was sure he’d heard the sound of Hayes’s screams whenever they caught sight of the Voornish monster. It had been hours since there’d been any hint of either of them, though.

Paine gave a shout and pointed. Fengel followed his finger along with everyone else, and breathed a sigh of relief as he spied the tall, thin masts of the
Goliath
rising beyond a spit of jungle to the east. He smiled at the assembled crew and led them down to the beach.

A ridge of rock stretched out from the jungle into the sand. Fengel recognized it as the same one from earlier, where the Salomcani had launched their raid upon the Perinese.
And now I’m helping what’s left of them to take the Goliath. Ironic.

He led the way, focusing on the immediate future. Natasha was right; there wasn’t any way he could keep ten people alive. Fengel was going to have enough trouble with just the two of them.
Am I? Stranger things have happened. And if we can hit a shipping lane somehow. Still, it’s going to be obvious to them too—

He ascended the top of the rock and cursed, throwing himself down flat.

The Dray Engine lay on the beach before the
Goliath
a hundred feet away. It was prostrate, belly down and arrow-straight from the tip of the tail all the way up to the jaws, the moonlight shining from its brazen hide. The great fire-lamp eyes were shuttered, and its foreclaws were folded neatly beneath the chest. Fengel could see that it wasn’t dead, though. Brass flywheels spun beneath the armored carapace and clockwork gears twitched along. For all the world though, the machine appeared to be sleeping.

Fengel held his hands out at the sailors and made shushing noises as the tall Salomcani, Farouk, climbed the ridge, followed by Natasha, and then Sergeant Cumbers. They paused a moment to stare in surprise and horror. Then Natasha swore.

“You overbuilt piece of trash!” she cried. “You wind-up joke! No! No! I refuse to believe that you can just show up wherever I—”

Fengel and the others moved as one. He leapt up to clap hands over her mouth, while Cumbers and Farouk tackled her to the rock. The three of them carried her back down behind the ridge, where the rest of the crew stared up at them in surprise.

Natasha kicked, fought, and bit, but Fengel and the others held her still. He gestured with his head back up the rock, and Farouk moved to obey. Only when the big sailor nodded back down at them did Fengel relax his grip. His wife fought her way free, furious. Fengel only held a bite-mark-covered finger to his lips for silence.

“I would really rather not wake the thing up, if you don’t mind,” he whispered.

Natasha only glared at him. Farouk slid back down the slope and leaned in close. “It shifted,” he said in thick Perinese. “But it hasn’t woken up.”

Fengel sighed. “How can such a monstrosity move so quickly? How did we not hear it on this side of the island?”

Paine went white. “Here? Is that machine-dragon here?”

“Yes, now sit down and be quiet while I think on this.”

Fengel rubbed his beard while he ran through ideas. The monster was obviously quite formidable, but if it hadn’t heard Natasha’s squalling, then they might slip past it. Fortunately, he had caught a glimpse of one of the
Goliath’s
longboats beached past it upon the shore.

The rest of the crew, Natasha included, were watching him somberly, waiting to see what he would come up with. Fengel gave them a smile. “All right. Best bet is still to reach the ship. there’s another boat or two along the starboard side that never got used. We can use those for our escape. Might still be a provision or two aboard as well. The Dray Engine is asleep or...something. We can slip past it, I think, then quietly,
quietly
use the longboat on the shore to row out to the
Goliath
.”

Natasha slammed a fist down into the sand. “I’ve had enough of that thing. I want to kill it.”

“Well,” continued Fengel. “It occurs to me that taking more time to prepare for the open ocean would be very possible, if we could kill the beast. But I don’t think it’s worth the risk. It’d take cannon fire, at the very least, and there isn’t very much powder left aboard the ship.”

The Perinese sailors all exchanged looks. “But you said the
Goliath
was all out,” replied Sergeant Cumbers. “There was barely enough for half the men to take muskets!”

“So did you!” said Etarin with a pointed look at Natasha.

“Oh,” replied Fengel, waving them off. “I lied, of course. There was some left in the magazine that I hid back in the captain’s cabin. You people were just never going to attack the
Salmalin
if you could have kept holding up aboard the ship.”