Steamborn (21 page)

They rocketed forward, the screams of the Red Death following them up the hill that would take them back to the Square. Jacob couldn’t see Samuel, and his stomach fluttered as he searched for the Spider Knight. He kept his head swiveling back and forth while Charles began dodging the rubble and carcasses that led into the Square.

Samuel appeared on the roof by the bank. Jacob saw him hit another igniter as Bessie reached the ground. The black metal ball bounced off the mountain of dead bugs, and Samuel hunkered down in his saddle while Bessie charged across the ground.

Jacob didn’t watch the fireball as it went up. He felt the earth shake, but he kept his eyes on the city wall. It stood closer now, so close. He could see two Spider Knights standing outside as they closed in on the gates.

“Get inside!”

Jacob could hear Charles scream for the guards to move, even though Jacob was looking back at Samuel and the mass of darkness pulsing behind him.

“Start closing the gates!”

Jacob saw the knights spring into action as the steambike blasted past them. Their cries echoed Charles’s own to close the gates. Charles slammed on the brake and swore as he and Jacob skidded onto the smooth stones of the city, narrowly missing a pair of knights standing in the courtyard.

“Where’s Samuel?” Jacob asked as he stripped off his goggles, hopped from the bike, and jogged back to the gate. Relief washed over him when Samuel shot through the ever-narrowing opening.

There was no ceremony or slowness. The gates boomed shut, metal smashing into stone and rattling everyone’s ears in the courtyard. The huge bolts slid home, creating an impenetrable barrier moments before the waves of Red Death broke and smashed into the wall. Their high-pitched cries mimicked that horrid sound when Miss Penny scraped metal across the chalkboard to wake up the class.

“Is everyone back?” Samuel asked. He slid off Bessie’s saddle and looked back at the wall. “Did the captain make it back?”

“Almost everyone,” the captain said as he laid a hand on Samuel’s shoulder. “Was that your whistle?”

Samuel nodded.

“You saved a great many men today. The Red Deaths were drawn to that whistle like nothing I’ve seen before.” The captain squeezed Samuel’s shoulder and then let his arm fall. “How did you know you could call the horde and still escape?”

Samuel shook his head and said, “I didn’t.”

The captain looked at him for a moment and said, “Thank you,” before he turned around and walked to the eastern gatehouse.

“What now?” Jacob asked.

“Let’s get everything back to the lab,” Charles said. “Then I’d like to have a chat with the captain and whatever repairmen we can find.”

Charles and Jacob climbed back onto the steambike. The streets were almost empty. A few people stood in the windows, watching them go by, but almost no one stood outside.

Jacob watched the windows and storefronts as Charles maneuvered back to Bat’s place. “Where is everyone?” The screech of the Red Death echoed in the distance.

“If I was to guess, I’d say they sounded the alarm after Samuel signaled with the whistle.”

“You really think the whistle was why they came after us?”

“I don’t know.” Charles put his foot down before sliding it back and flipping the metal stand underneath the steambike. “Give me a hand with the doors.”

Charles had installed a puzzle lock on the lab door, with Bat’s approval. Jacob slid the nine brass tiles around until the springs inside clicked. The bolts at the top and bottom of the door retracted, and Jacob pushed one side open while Charles slid the other out of the way.

“Alice?” Jacob asked as he held the door open. She looked up from
The Dead Scourge
and almost leapt to her feet.

“You’re okay?” She threw her arms around Jacob and squeezed as though she meant to remove every ounce of air from his lungs. She released him and shuffled away before asking, “You’re both okay? I heard there were … I heard some of the repairmen didn’t make it back.”

Charles snuffed the Burner beneath the boiler on the steambike and pushed it inside the lab. A trail of black smoke rose against the pale wall, pooling and spreading across the ceiling until it dissipated.

“One of the knights didn’t make it either,” Jacob said. “I saw him, and then …” He shook his head.

“Heard there was trouble.”

Jacob looked toward the doorway and smiled when he saw his dad standing upright. He didn’t look as tired as he normally did, or maybe it was the lighting in the lab.

“The boy did great,” Charles said, hefting brick after brick of the springs out of the saddlebags. “We’ll be able to build more prosthetics than we have time to build.”

Jacob squeezed past Charles as the old man bent down to open the lowest of the saddlebags. He hugged his dad, and felt a little safer when his father ruffled his hair.

“It’s almost dinner time. Bat has ribs he bought from the butcher. You won’t want to miss it.” His dad started to walk away.

“How’s mom?”

“She’s much better now that she knows you’re safe. We were out on the balcony and saw you coming up the street.”

Jacob hesitated, looking between Alice and Charles, and the hall that would lead to his mother.

“Help Charles put everything away,” his dad said. “Your mom can wait a few more minutes to chew your ear off. Alice, I’m sure Bat won’t mind if you wish to join us.”

“Thank you,” she said, “but only if it’s okay with Bat.”

They spent ten minutes quickly arranging supplies and stacking them into neatly organized towers. Everything was ready for them to start building when they were done, though it would take a while to remember exactly where they’d placed each item.

“Let’s get some food,” Charles said. “I’m sure Samuel will still be at the gatehouse after dinner.”

The door to the hall closed, and Jacob stared at the heavy wooden door before slowly turning around. “Mom’s going to kill me.”

Alice and Charles both laughed.

Jacob sat by his mother at the knotted wooden table. Alice sat across from him, and they exchanged glances all throughout the first course. He was surprised that none of the other houseguests were there, only Bat and Jacob’s family and friends. The empty places at the table made the high-ceilinged room feel like a Hall.

“The potato salad is delicious,” Jacob said, looking at the head of the table.

“Thank you, Jacob.” Bat scooped up a heaping spoon of the rich salad and refilled his plate. He looked a bit too big for the chair in which he sat.

“Charles?” Alice said.

The old man looked up.

“In the book it says that the people in the Deadlands kept Fire Lizards as pets. Is that really true?”

“I don’t know that I’d call them pets.” Charles chewed up a bite of potato and swallowed. “They were on friendly terms, you could say. Some of our spies lived with families that would feed the lizards. No one was crazy enough to let one into their home, that I’m aware of. Some were trained, yes, but mainly to ambush their enemies. Well, to ambush
us,
as a matter of fact.”

“What about the firestorms?”

Charles nodded. “Firestorms are quite real in the deep desert. There are geysers of oxygen, you know. Sometimes they catch fire, and sometimes a valley will fill with the gas until a spark or a lightning strike sets it off.” Charles pointed his fork at Alice and winked at her. “That’s when you run.”

“Have you seen the old cities?” Jacob’s dad asked. “My father used to tell me stories before he died in the mine collapse. I always wanted to see them.”

Charles took another bite, his eyes flicking between his plate and his glass. Jacob knew that look. He was debating on how much to say. Charles swallowed and took a drink of water before he nodded.

“They aren’t really cities anymore. There are ruins of steel and iron that stretch even higher than the city wall, but those are the lands of Widow Makers and Tree Killers. They are burned out, and the Deadlands are a fitting home for them.”

“Imagine the people though,” Jacob’s dad said. “An entire city of people living in that desert?”

“It likely wasn’t a desert when people lived there,” Bat said. “Look how fast the invaders have grown and changed. Red Deaths the size of a carriage? Widow Makers with fangs large enough to run a man through? Two decades past, it was unheard of. Who’s to say what that desert was like a hundred or three hundred years ago? However long ago the city fell.”

“Why doesn’t anyone know what happened?” Jacob asked. “The people had to have gone somewhere.”

“No one knows,” Charles said. “I’ve heard theories—oh, there are always theories. A giant beast swallowed the city, the entire population was lost to war, or the first firestorm burned everything to the ground. Truth is, we may never know.”

“Do you think it was the Forgotten?”

Charles shook his head. “That city was long dead before the Forgotten were banished from Ancora. There are ironbark trees and cacti taller than houses where men once laid stone roads.”

Jacob had almost forgotten to enjoy his ribs he was listening so closely to Charles. A dead city. “I’d love to see it someday.”

Jacob’s mom let out a sigh. “You and your father. I swear, you’ll both be the death of me.”

His dad smiled.

Charles wiped his hands on a cloth napkin before setting it on his plate. “Well, if you would excuse us, I’d like to talk to Samuel about our adventure today.”

Bat pushed his chair out. “Before you go …” He disappeared into the kitchen around the wall and came back with a tray of round chocolate balls. “I picked up a few truffles from the candy maker today.”

A flurry of hands snatched up every last candy when Bat set the tray down. The big man wore a bigger smile when his guests gushed about the flavors and textures.

Alice shoved a second truffle into her mouth, and Jacob thought she might drool. “Thank you so much. I’ve never had a real truffle before.”

“My pleasure,” Bat said.
“Now
you can be excused.”

Alice laughed and slid her chair back.

“Did you need a hand with the dishes?” Charles asked.

Bat shook his head. “It’ll be dark soon. Best if you go now and get back early.”

“You aren’t wrong,” the old man said. “Jacob, Alice, let’s go.”

“Charles?” Jacob’s mom said as the trio walked toward the lab.

Charles looked back and waited.

“Thank you for keeping him safe. I hate to think what could have happened if he’d snuck off on his own.”

Charles nodded.

Jacob continued down the hallway and pushed the heavy door to the lab open. He hated it when his parents talked about him like he wasn’t right there in the room. He was old enough to know what risks were worth taking.

The door closed behind them. Charles glanced at it and then back to Jacob. “Good of you not to talk back to your mother. Keep a level head, boy, or one day you’ll smart off to someone who would just as soon put you down.”

Somehow Jacob didn’t think Charles meant someone who would be mean to him. Charles meant someone that would kill him. Jacob wasn’t helpless, but the old man did have a point.

Alice flipped a page in
The Dead Scourge
and brushed her hair back.

Charles paused and stared at the workbench. A moment later, he slid the nail glove off the top shelf and placed it in his backpack before slinging it over his shoulder.

“What do you need that for?” Jacob asked.

“It’s not me who needs it. Come on, you two. Let’s find Samuel and Ambrose.”

It wasn’t long before they were back in the courtyard by the gatehouses. Many more people gathered there now. Word had obviously spread that it was still safe inside the walls, and the terrible cries of the Red Death were nothing more than a baleful sound.

Charles knocked on the door to the eastern gatehouse and waited. It wasn’t long before the door swung in. Samuel wasn’t there. Jacob didn’t see any of the Spider Knights, only a handful of city knights. The whole room smelled like tobacco and ale and sweat. Jacob wrinkled his nose, looking around the stone room and the long oak table in the center. At the far end, with his hands splayed across a map and his head hanging low, stood the captain.

“Did you really need to bring kids in here?” the captain asked. He glanced up before folding over the map on the table. His voice was deeper than it had been earlier that day. He didn’t sound angry, but he didn’t look happy either.

“He’s my assistant,” Charles said, putting his arm around Jacob’s shoulders.

The captain narrowed his eyes. “And the girl?”

“She’s my assistant,” Jacob said as he put his arm around Alice.

Alice rolled her eyes and blew out a noisy breath through her nose, but she didn’t protest. Jacob was pretty sure he’d be hearing about it later.

The captain rubbed his face. “What is it you need, tinker?”

“We’re looking for Samuel,” Charles said, his eyes sweeping the room. He frowned slightly. “And the wall repairmen. I thought they’d be here.”

“They’re off at the Wild Horse. The Spider Knights took the men out after I asked them to leave.” The captain turned another map over on the table and looked up. “I’m sure they’ll drink to Jones and his
glory.
Now, if you don’t need anything more …”

Charles gave a curt shake of his head. “Thank you for your help earlier, and just now.”

The captain nodded as Charles turned around and led Alice and Jacob toward the Wild Horse Inn.

Jacob said nothing and followed Charles back out into the evening light of the courtyard. They were near one of the streetlights when something clicked and whirred until it became a constant, steady hum. The streetlight burst into brilliant life as they walked beneath, scattering shadows across the cobblestones.

“Charles?”

“Hmm?” he said as he looked back at Jacob.

“Why did the captain have a map of Dauschen?”

“I saw that too,” Alice said. “It had squares and crosses all over it.”

“You kids have good eyes.” Charles took a sharp right, heading toward the row of shops and inns set into the eastern block. “Not out here.” He weaved his way around an elderly couple as they started to climb onto a carriage before he stopped in front of an old four-story stone building.