Steamsworn (Steamborn Series Book 3) (24 page)

Gladys pulled the top of her shirt down far enough to reveal the metal plate bolted across her chest. It was an old wound, and a rough mend, but it bonded her to a group of warriors like no other. She held out her fist.

George eyed it and then wrapped his fingers around it.

Gladys almost snarled as the words left her lips …

“Find me in that Steamsworn grave.”

*     *     *

Mary didn’t slow
the Skysworn until Dauschen rose up against the evening sun. A column of smoke turned to shadows against the burning sky.

“Look at it,” Alice whispered.

“I’ve never seen one outside of Bollwerk,” Mary said. She took a deep breath and wore a sad smile.

Bollwerk’s warship hovered near the destroyed base of Dauschen, near the last stand of Charles von Atlier. The smoke lessened, but an eerie glow still lit the chasm of the fallen cliffside, bathing the underside of the warship’s cannons in fiery light.

Not long ago, Jacob would have seen that monstrosity as the most terrifying machine ever to take to the skies, but now … now he’d seen Ballern’s destroyers and Belldorn’s Porcupines. He’d seen what death looked like in the skies, and one warship would never be able to face Ballern’s strength alone.

“Go,” Mary said when the Skysworn settled into an even flight. “I’ll find the tents George was talking about.”

Jacob threw off his harness and slipped through the door to the cabin with Alice. A short jog took them to the hatch that led below decks, and the yellowish lantern light guided them to Smith’s lab.

Smith glanced up and released Samuel’s arm when Jacob and Alice entered. He’d wrapped the Spider Knight’s left forearm in a bandage up to the elbow. Another bandage circled Samuel’s head, holding a bloody, square piece of gauze over his temple.

Drakkar pulled a saturated bandage off Samuel’s leg, quickly replacing it with another wrap.

“He is awake,” Smith said.

Relief flooded Jacob when Samuel’s eyes flashed open and then narrowed. “Gods but that’s a headache.” The Spider Knight raised his right arm and prodded the bandage on his head. “I better not have a bunch of biomech implants.”

Smith smiled and cocked an eyebrow at Jacob. “Biomechanics aren’t so bad, eh, kid?”

Jacob rapped his knuckles on his leg. “Nope.”

“Whatever,” Samuel said. “Last thing Bessie’s going to want when I get back is to be carrying around more weight. Damn Jumper is temperamental enough as it is.”

“How is he?” Alice asked.

“Better than I expected when I found him,” Smith said. “The head wound bled a great deal. I feared the worst when I saw it.”

“Can he come with us? To Ancora?”

Smith hesitated.

Samuel twisted his neck to look at Jacob. “Us?”

“We’re going to kill the Butcher.” The words were so easy to say, though Jacob knew the act would be much more difficult to pull off.

“You’re just a
kid
,” Samuel said as he struggled to sit up. “Dammit, Smith, unbuckle me.”

The tinker clicked the release on the harness and Samuel sat up, pausing only to wince.

“You can’t go after the Butcher.”

“You can come with us, or not, but I’m going. He’s going to die, or I am.”

Drakkar turned to Samuel. “We should go with him.”

“No,” Samuel said, “we should tie him up in a cellar until his common sense comes back. He can’t win this.”

Drakkar frowned slightly. “He is consumed with passion, and it will burn him alive or lead him to a great victory. If I can help, I will stand at his side. The Butcher has reigned in Ancora long enough.”

Drakkar glanced at Jacob and then met Samuel’s eyes. “I once mistook Charles for being no better than the Butcher. His creations left my city in ruins, trampled my brothers and sisters and led to the fall of Midstream.”

“That wasn’t Charles!” Jacob shouted, grabbing Drakkar by the cloak. Alice pulled on his arm, trying to drag him away from the Cave Guardian. Jacob couldn’t let go, not yet. “He didn’t kill those people. He would have traded places with them in a heartbeat.”

Drakkar wrapped his hands around Jacob’s and met his eyes. The Cave Guardian’s eyes were red, and moisture gathered at the corners. “I know, Jacob. I was wrong … I was wrong.”

Jacob couldn’t stop the tears from running down his face when Drakkar’s words all but pierced his heart. That wasn’t what he wanted to feel. He wanted to feel the rage, not the pain. He wanted the hatred to fuel him in a mad, violent quest to destroy the Butcher. But if he’d learned anything from Charles, he knew he needed a plan, and he needed his friends. He fell back into Alice’s arms.

“Nothing can save him now,” Samuel said.

Jacob didn’t know if he meant Charles or the Butcher, but it didn’t matter. They were both dead.

*     *     *

Mary stared at
Jacob when they returned to the pilot’s cabin. She offered a lone nod. She didn’t speak, but she didn’t need to; he knew she’d heard everything over the horn.

Samuel grunted and flopped onto one of the jump seats.

Smith leaned against the dashboard below the windscreen, arms folded.

“Drop us on the other side of the city,” Samuel said. “There are a few small railcars there that we can ride to Ancora.”

“That is madness,” Drakkar said. “Railcars? What can you hope to do against the walls of Ancora?”

Jacob knew, and his eyes widened at his understanding of Samuel’s suggestion. “Ride the railcars into the catacombs. You could sneak a small force through the old tunnels. Most of Ancora doesn’t know they’re there.”

“The military knows,” Alice said.

“It’s a risk,” Samuel said. “But the catacombs lead through the Highlands and up into Parliament.”

“And what of the enemy soldiers left behind in Dauschen?” Drakkar’s question was quiet.

“We destroy the bridge,” Jacob said. “If they follow, they’ll either die on the tracks or be forced back to Dauschen.”

“We used all the bombs,” Alice said.

Jacob shook his head. “No we didn’t. We still have the impact fuses.”

Smith stood up. “That could work. They do not
have
to be triggered by an impact. A Burner will work just as well, and once it is triggered on the bridge …”

Mary shifted the wheel and the Skysworn began to drift to the east. “Are they hot enough to melt that old trestle?”

“It’s reinforced with wood,” Samuel said. “It’ll burn. No doubt about it.”

She pointed to the shadowed block of canvas below them. “There are the tents. Get down and find George and Gladys. Find out what kind of allies we have here.”

Smith turned to the windscreen and leaned on the dashboard. “Looks like there has already been a fight. Some of the tents are down.”

“Get ready,” Mary said. “We’ll be ready to drop in less than a minute.”

Jacob walked to the hatch and threw the lever. He glanced back at Samuel. “Why don’t you wait here? I’ll get the landing lines, and once we find Gladys and George, we can come back for you.”

Samuel leaned back into the jump seat and sighed. “Fine by me.”

Mary glanced back at Samuel and then turned back to the windscreen. “Smith, Drakkar, are you staying?”

“No,” Drakkar said. “There is more danger on the ground than in the sky. We will meet with this Cage and judge him for ourselves.”

Alice slid around Jacob and pushed her way out of the hatch. Jacob grabbed Charles’s air cannon off the rack by the door and followed.

“I’ll get the other side,” Alice said.

Jacob nodded and walked over to the spooled landing line closest to the pilot’s cabin. He swung it up and over the railing and pulled the release. The spool unwound slowly at first and then picked up speed as the steel anchor whistled through the air.

Smith stepped up beside Jacob and grabbed the spool with a gloved hand. “Slowly. There could be people down there. We are not in the desert this evening.”

Jacob jerked away with the realization of what he’d done. He spun away from Smith and looked across the deck at Alice. She let the rope out slowly, keeping one hand on the spool while she watched the anchor lower.

“She is a smart one,” Smith said. The tinker smiled when Jacob turned around.

“I know.”

Smith glanced over the edge of the Skysworn, tugged on the spool, and nodded. “It is down. Drakkar!”

The Cave Guardian exited the pilot’s cabin and joined them by the landing line. “Is it time?”

Smith threw the lock on the spool. “Yes.”

“I’ll go down with Alice,” Jacob said, turning away as Smith handed Drakkar a belayer.

“Stay close,” Drakkar said. “There are Carrion Worms below.”

Jacob hesitated and turned back to the guardian. “What?”

“They are dead, but the carcasses are around the felled tent. Be wary, and be ready.”

Jacob jogged over to Alice. She handed him a belayer and then latched her own onto the landing line.

“What was Drakkar saying?”

Jacob glanced up at her and frowned. “Carrion Worms. They’re dead, but they’re down there.”

Alice leaned over the edge and took a deep breath. “At least they’re dead. See you at the bottom.” She swung her legs over the edge of the Skysworn and jumped.

Jacob slid his own belayer over the rough rope of the landing line and hurdled the railing. Alice could take care of herself, but he didn’t want her to be on the ground with Carrion Worms by herself. The damage just one of those things could do …

A chilly gust of wind pulled at his vest and he shivered. The cold made the cap in his leg ache, but he tuned it out.

Jacob pulled the brake on his belayer as he reached the bottom, making sure not to drop onto Alice. He released the brake once he found her. She’d already disengaged and was waiting off to the side of the landing line. His boots hit the trampled grass between the tents a moment before Drakkar’s boots slammed into the stone pathway to the south.

It was only then Jacob noticed the heavy nail glove on Alice’s right hand.

Smith touched down behind Drakkar and yelled back up to the Skysworn. “Down!” The anchor nearest them began rising into the air.

“Where do we start?” Jacob asked.

Smith squinted and looked around the Square. He pointed off to a far tent that still stood, and another closer by.

“The tent with the old Bollwerk flag,” Jacob said. He gave the dead Carrion Worm a wide berth, passing it on the edge of the walkway. Wide, flat stones formed the path. He tried to concentrate on the difference between those and the cobblestones of Ancora instead of the rancid stench rising from the Carrion Worm’s corpse.

Even after they’d passed it, the pungent smell of rot was almost thick enough to chew on.

Drakkar and Smith remained silent for most of the walk. Jacob glanced back at them, surprised to find Drakkar with two drawn blades and Smith with a wrist-mounted bolt gun at the ready.

Alice stopped before the first of the tents. Smoke rose from the rudimentary chimney. Voices sounded behind the closed canvas flaps.

Jacob reached out and grabbed the rough fabric.

“Wait,” Smith said. “George!”

T
he voices inside
the tent fell silent. Jacob heard a scrabbling sound and then rapid footsteps across a hard floor. The tent flap flew backwards, the coarse canvas ripping out of his hand as it revealed the warm lantern light inside, and the girl with a smile larger—but somehow colder—than any he’d seen on her before.

“Alice!” Gladys said before she threw her arms around her.

Both flaps folded back inside the tent. George stood within, beside another man, who Jacob didn’t recognize. The man smiled and extended his hand, exchanging grips with Jacob and Smith in turn. The only thing remarkable about him was his lack of anything remarkable. It made Jacob uneasy, and he couldn’t take his eyes off the medium-skinned, wide-eyed man.

“Welcome to the resistance. I am Cage.”

“I’ve heard stories told of you in Cave,” Drakkar said.

“I am Bollwerk’s best.” Cage’s voice didn’t take on the low tones of a braggart. He sounded more like Miss Penny, stating a simple fact.

Drakkar crossed his arms. “You fought against Rana in Midstream not so long ago, and yet he still lived to kidnap Gladys.”