Sky Pirates (25 page)

“Well then, we are simply going to have to run as fast as we can, for a whole day if need be, now won’t we?” the captain said. “Now find me the shortest route!”

Elle just stared at him as fear boiled in her stomach. She still woke in the night thinking that she was on board the
Water Lily
with Gertrude, the sound of gunfire deafening her ears. And she also had ample experience with the dangers of those who utilized the powers of the electromancers. Being raided again, this time by creatures with Shadow power, was just about the most terrifying thing she could imagine.

“Bearings!” Dashwood barked.

Elle jumped and turned to her charts.

“Mr. Crow?”

“Full steam ahead, sir. We are going to give them a run for their money, for sure.”

“Take her up as high as you can, Mr. Kipper. I want as much clearance as we can get in case we need to dive,” the captain said.

“Aye, Captain,” Mr. Kipper said. Even he was looking slightly perturbed.

The next hour passed in tense silence. The only sound on the bridge was the creaking of fuselage and the desperate hum of the
Inanna
’s engines, which had been pushed to their limit.

Elle scanned the horizon with her optics. Her viewfinder locked on a shadow in the distance and she froze. She turned the little wheels of her spyglass until the image came into view. An airship painted black as night was heading toward them, her dark balloon curving gracefully above the carved hull.

“Captain! Off the starboard side. Looks like a Chinese junk,” she said.

Dashwood peered into the direction she indicated. “Why are they not running from the Aeternae?” he muttered.

“They look like they are gaining on us,” she said.

Dashwood frowned.

“Captain!” Finn burst on to the bridge “Captain!” he gasped.

“Ships aft. They are in our slipstream, sir. A clipper and two schooners. One of them has just raised their colors. Pirates, sir,” he gasped.

“What?” Dashwood said. “Mrs. Marsh. With me, please.” He snapped as he strode out of the bridge and along the gangway to the poop deck that held an observation platform. By the time they reached the deck, two more ships had appeared in view.

“What is going on?” Dashwood murmured.

“I have no idea, sir,” Elias said, looking up from his spyglass. “They just appeared from nowhere. Seems like they’ve been tracking us since Socotra.”

Dashwood swore. “If we survive this, I am going to kill with my bare hands the man who blabbed about our destination!”

A tense silence filled the deck. No one even dared to breathe.

“Elias, you are in charge of the poop deck. I want someone on the communications tubes at all times. Updates every five minutes. Every five minutes, do you hear me?”

“Aye, sir!”

“Finn, man the cannons. Call Fat Paul and the Doc up here to help you. Tell Mick to keep her engines running no matter what. We are going to need every pair of hands we can find to fight off these bastards. Hopefully the riders will go for one of these other ships, if we manage to hit one hard enough to slow them down.”

No one spoke.

“Do I make myself clear?”

“Aye, Cap’n.”

Their answer was punctuated by the dull thunder of cannon fire. The
Inanna
shuddered as a blast of spark bloomed in the air beside them.

“Battle stations!” Dashwood shouted.

“Officers to the bridge!”

Elle ran after him as he strode along the gangway, his coattails flapping behind him.

When they reached the bridge, Heller grabbed Elle by her elbow. “Here,” he said as he thrust her Colt into her hand. “Found some ammo for it too.” He pushed the paper box into her other hand. “Save yourself, if it comes to that, lass. Don’t let them take you.”

“Thank you, Heller,” Elle said. She gripped his large hand.

“Bearings!” Dashwood shouted behind them. “Mr. Heller, you have orders to fire at will. Now move it!”

“Aye, Captain,” Elle said as she stowed her pistol and resumed her post.

The Aeternae were now much closer. She could glimpse the outline of their dreadnought through the clouds.

More cannon fire exploded around them. The ship recoiled as the
Inanna
returned fire.

“Mr. Crow, I need more power,” Dashwood said. “On Mrs. Marsh’s bearings. Mr. Kipper, take her down as fast as you can.”

They all turned and looked at the captain. “But, sir, that would place us in a headlong collision course with the pirates …”

“Do it! Now!” he barked.

The
Inanna
groaned as her hull absorbed the pressure exerted upon her as Mr. Crow and Mr. Kipper adjusted course. Elle kept her eyes trained on her instruments while the storm rider cloud grew bigger and bigger before them. Behind them, the flotilla of airships trailed in the
Inanna
’s wake.

“When I give the order, I want you to dive. Full steam. Nose to the ground. Do I make myself clear?” Dashwood said.

“Aye, Captain,” they all answered.

The captain was planning a risky maneuver which intended to flick the ships behind them into the Aeternae’s storm cloud, using the
Inanna
’s thruster updraft when she dived.

There were no guarantees that the other ships would follow. There was also no guarantee that they would be able to level off before they plunged into the ground either, but right now the maneuver was their only option. Elle bit her lip before she could say anything. Now was not the time to question the captain’s authority. This was do-or-die time.

She checked her Colt at her side. She had loaded it in
the few spare moments she had between Dashwood’s commands. She hoped Heller had taken good care of her Colt and stored it safely. If there was any dirt in it, it could misfire or jam. There was no time to worry about it though. They had far bigger problems to face.

The
Inanna
bucked forward and rocked as she took more fire from behind. There was a slight shudder as something impacted on the side of the hull just below them.

“What was that?” Elle said.

“Keep your eyes on the navigation, Mrs. Marsh. Let me worry about the thumps and knocks, all right?” Dashwood said.

“Yes, listen to your captain,” a strange voice said from behind them, followed by a snigger.

Elle turned round to see two men armed with shotguns at the entrance to the bridge. One was wearing a battered tricolor hat. She could have sworn it was the same hat worn by Salty Ben in Socotra.

“I know you. You were at my table in the tavern,” she said before she could stop herself.

He lifted his hat with a flourish. “Colin at your service, ma’am. And this is Ed. We have come to collect the bounty.”

“Bounty? What bounty?” Dashwood said. He had drawn his pistol, which caused both Colin and Ed to take aim at him.

Colin started laughing. “He don’t even know about the gold mine he’s sitting on top of, do he?”

“What?” Dashwood barked.

“We’ve come for the woman, Captain. The redhead—the one who don’t cast no shadow. There’s a hundred thousand pounds sterling in it for us, if we deliver her in London.”

“A hundred thousand pounds,” Ed said before he started giggling.

“That’s right. Now hand her over before it’s too late. You have a battle to finish.”

Dashwood glared at Elle. “What is he talking about?”

Elle shrugged. “Um, that’s why the man I killed in Socotra was following me. There’s a bounty on my head, apparently—”

“Enough chatting. Give us the girl,” Colin said. He shucked his shotgun like a man who meant business.

“I don’t think so,” Dashwood said. He lifted his pistol and shot Colin squarely in the chest. Colin’s eyes widened in surprise for an instant, before the life went out of them. His legs buckled and he sank to the ground with a thud.

At the same time, Ed shrieked and started firing his shotgun repeatedly. Everyone ducked as the buckshot sprayed across the close confines of the bridge. The windglass turned opaque in a spiderweb of cracks.

On impact, Mr. Kipper groaned and slumped forward onto his controls, his insides spilling in a slick of blood and gore across the flight instruments.

With Kipper no longer at the helm, the
Inanna
screeched and started plummeting to the ground. Everywhere, lights started flashing and alarms started ringing. The change in pressure made the cracked windglass shatter. Tiny fragments of glass sprayed everywhere and an icy wind rushed into the cabin, scattering charts and instruments.

Elle felt herself being flung across the deck, but her fall was broken by something warm and solid. Dashwood. His arm flopped over her, the muscles limp and motionless. Elle looked at his face. His eyes were closed and blood streaked over his cheek from where he had hit his head. He was alive, but out cold. Which was just as well, given the fact that at that moment they were plummeting to the earth below—and certain death.

I must try to save the ship
, Elle thought.
The crew. Hellhounds be damned, there is only one way I know. I can do this if I try
.

Elle closed her eyes and focused her attention on where the barrier should be. Perhaps it was the presence of the Storm Riders, but the
Inanna
’s hexes seemed to have weakened and when she gave it all she had, Elle could just about make out the faintest glimmer of the barrier. It was a long shot, but right now it was the only option left.

The warlocks are never, ever going to forgive me for this
, she thought as she summoned up every bit of energy she had within her. She grabbed hold of the barrier and tore at it with all her might. She felt an awful ripping sensation as a large rent opened up between the worlds. She willed the
Inanna
toward the opening with all the strength she could muster.

The ship creaked and bucked, and she nudged it forward. She felt her muscles strain, and something wet trickled from her nose, but still she held on with everything she had. Then the fuselage slammed into the barrier with a deafening crash and the impact caused the barrier to split open further, but the hole was still not big enough for an 800-foot battleship. With the sickening crunch of distressed metal and the hiss of balloon gas, the
Inanna
lodged herself in the rip, marooned half inside and half outside the dividing space of the realms of Shadow and Light. Half the ship had disappeared into the barrier, and was now invisible to those looking at it from the Light side. The other half remained suspended in midair. Elle had effectively flown the ship into a wall and now the
Inanna
was stuck there with no way of passing through.

Around her, Elle heard pipes bursting and gauges popping. Steam and engine fluid started to spray everywhere.
Blue spark crackled over the surfaces, igniting patches of flammable liquid.

“Abandon ship! To the life-raft balloons. Use the outriders if you must! Save yourselves!” Heller shouted and began to help Atticus clamber out of the broken doors that led away from the bridge.

Lights flickered, and somewhere in the distance the low boom of a ship’s horn sounded. Above her, someone was giggling hysterically. It was an awful gurgling sound. Elle looked up to find Ed the pirate hanging just above them. A jagged piece of metal torn loose from the hull was protruding from his stomach, skewering him to the spot, wound bathed in a slick, red gore which dripped down onto the floor next to them.

“Aeternae. They sound their hunting horns before they board a ship,” he said. “They are coming for you,” he rasped. Then he started laughing again weakly, before his eyes closed as the last bit of life drained out of him. His body went limp.

Elle looked down at Dashwood. He was still unconscious.

Damn you, Captain. I can’t leave you here for those things
, she thought. She had no way of telling where they were in relation to the two worlds, or even how high up in the air, for that matter. For all she knew, the hound was waiting for her on the other side, jaws wide and ready to tear her apart.

Off in the distance, she heard the sound of boots clambering over metal, followed by the brief, terrified screams of crewmen, before they were silenced. She heard cannon fire, but it seemed to be directed away from them. The captain’s plan must have worked, she thought. The Aeternae had turned on the other pirates, and from the sound of it they were exchanging some pretty heavy-duty cannon fire.

If she was going to survive this, now would be the
time to move. She grabbed hold of the captain and lifted him up so his arm draped over her shoulder. She allowed gravity to take over, letting him roll over her so she could drag him, draped over her back.

“Let’s see if they have any gliders left on this thing,” she said to his unconscious form as she sidestepped the dead pirate Colin.

Dashwood was heavy but moving downhill helped, and she managed to pull him through the broken doors and along the sloping gangway. Around her the air rang out with the screams of the Aeternae and gunfire.

The
Inanna
was constructed out of a honeycomb of air ducts that made her light and strong. It was the secret to her staying in the air. Elle opened an air duct through one of the service doors and slipped inside.

The duct seemed to be clear and quiet. “Come along then, Captain,” Elle said, sucking in a breath as she heaved. He let out a loud groan so she stopped and rested against the hull for a moment. The metal beneath her felt strangely warm to the touch, which was rather worrying.

“Captain,” Elle whispered. She patted his cheek. “Captain Dashwood, wake up.”

He groaned once more and opened his eyes slightly before shutting them again. “What happened?” he mumbled. “Why aren’t we moving?”

“Captain,” she whispered and patted his cheek again, this time a little harder. “You can’t sleep here. Come on, you have to walk.” Elle dragged him up. “Both legs, there you go.”

Dashwood stumbled but managed to stay upright. He groaned again.

“Be quiet. They’ll hear us. This way,” she said as they shuffled down the duct. Dashwood, for once, allowed himself to be led along until they reached the row of launch conduits that held the ship’s gliders. To her dismay,
they were all empty. The rest of the crew must have taken them, she realized with both relief and despair.