Steamsworn (Steamborn Series Book 3) (29 page)

“Jacob,” Alice hissed. “Jacob, what is it?”

He glanced back when her arm clamped down on his shoulder.

“I … I knew him. I made his arm … in the hospital … I just …” He cursed and snarled and stormed off. They were almost to the lift.

Alice caught up with him and squeezed his arm. “That’s why we’re here. Don’t forget it. We have to stop these people, Jacob.”

“I know.”

“Then keep your head. We won’t do anyone any good if we get caught.” Alice stopped and looked up. “Isn’t this it?”

A groove cut through the side of the mountain and seemed to stretch into the night sky. “It should be, but I don’t …” Jacob stepped in where he expected to find the lift, and something rustled under his foot. After a moment’s hesitation, he reached out and touched what he expected to be earth or bodies. Instead he found fabric.

“Something’s here. Grab that edge.”

Alice did, and they pulled. A cloth tarp slid away, revealing the lift beneath. “Who hid it?” Alice asked.

Jacob shrugged. “I don’t know. Let’s just get to the top.” He stepped to the back of the lift. “Stay close. Whoever hid it removed the railing.”

Alice sidled up beside him. Jacob put his arm around her before he hit the button. The lift jerked to life and sped them toward the top of the cliffside in almost complete silence. Jacob pulled Alice closer, breathing in the familiar scent of her hair before the lift crested the wall.

“Shit.” Alice said everything Jacob needed to say.

The observatory still stood, an odd-shaped cone at the edge of a ravaged city. The ruins of the Lowlands hid in the moonlight, and some part of Jacob stayed thankful for it. He pulled Alice by the hand, hugging the right side of the observatory, pausing only to listen for voices, or footsteps, or any hint of life.

The nearest row of homes still stood, though one roof had collapsed and slid into the street. Ashes and debris formed the next block. Burned and leveled, homes seemed little more than grave markers left to rot beneath the night sky.

Jacob turned his attention back to the observatory. What had happened in the Lowlands, they couldn’t know, but what they could do now … He peeled back the loose bit of paneling he knew so well and pulled Alice into the shadows of Charles’s old lab.

Alice wrapped her arms around him. He wasn’t sure if he was shaking, or Alice was shaking, or the observatory was about to fall down around them.

Jacob took two deep breaths and squeezed her tight. The Lowlands were gone. That much … that much was true, but Alice was still here.
He
was still here. That meant Lowlanders weren’t gone yet. He pushed her head back with his hands. Her tears glistened in the thin stream of moonlight that crept in through a sliver in the observatory’s roof.

Her kiss was as soft as it was surprising.

“Alice?” he said when she pulled away.

“Shut up,” she said, pressing her finger to his lips.

He kissed her back, and hard. Her lips were warm, and right, and his heart hammered away in his chest. She leaned into him, her breath warm on his face, and he pressed back. She broke away, wrapping her arms around his waist when he tightened his own arms around her shoulders.

“We should hurry,” Alice said. “We need to get back to the station.”

“Right … right.” Jacob fumbled at his pocket and pulled out the reflector for his lantern. He clipped it onto the mount and clicked the igniter. They both winced at the sudden burst of light. Jacob crawled beneath the old shelves. He felt sick as he looked at Charles’s workbench. Almost nothing remained. Someone had taken every project the old man had in progress, and gods only knew where they were now.

Alice stepped around him and glanced up at the shelves. “There’s more left than I would have expected.”

Jacob looked up at the crates and barrels. Most of it was heavy supplies they didn’t much have a use for. “Check the fourth crate down. Charles kept the belts we’d been using for the nail guns in there.”

The glint of the yellow lantern flame on polished metal caught Jacob’s eye. The old arm brace he’d accidentally used to punch a hole in the wall sat discarded on the floor beside the bench. Charles hadn’t even seemed mad when he’d done it. Jacob smiled as he picked up the abandoned project, but that smile fell as he remembered Charles’s last words. He set the brace on the workbench.

A crate squeaked behind him when Alice tugged it out into the light. He heard metal shifting behind the wood as she dug through the old box.

Jacob bent down to the leg of the workbench. Still bolted to the floor, and it didn’t show signs of anyone trying to unbolt it. Jacob flipped the false corner of one of the legs off and pressed the button beneath. A series of pops and clicks chased the top of the workbench. Jacob lifted the edge to reveal the old tinker’s most dangerous inventions, most precious metals, and his proudest contraptions.

He took the powders and springs and clips that he’d need to build more Bangers and Burners. Some of the white powder Charles used to make Flashers rested in the corner of the bench. Jacob took it all, stuffing his backpack as full as it would go.

In the bottom, beneath the last handful of preassembled igniters, he found one of the little flywheels mounted into a base. Charles had been working on the design when Jacob had spied on him what seemed like just a couple weeks before. The little light had made the old tinker so happy, even if it had only burned for a few moments.

Jacob slid the rounded slab of wood into one of the last pockets on his backpack and tucked the flywheel into a pocket on his thigh. He grunted as he picked up the pack and slid it over his shoulders. Jacob closed the hidden door and started to walk away.

The brace caught his eye, gleaming on the workbench. Jacob picked it up and slid it over his arm. It flexed easily, and the padding for the shoulder mount felt good beneath the backpack’s strap. Maybe he could use it for something. Something to remember Charles by.

“Two more belts,” Alice said. She held up a long pair of belts studded with anchoring bolts before sliding them into her own backpack.

“That’s great. Did you see any shells for the Burners?”

“Better,” Alice said, sliding two tin boxes across the floor.

Jacob leaned down and opened them both. He stared at the mountain of Bangers and Burners hiding inside. “How did they miss these? They clearly raided the lab.” He rummaged through the boxes. There had to be three dozen of each, or more. “This is great, Alice.”

He glanced up when she didn’t say anything more. “Alice?”

“You take one step and I’ll turn your brain to paste.”

Jacob froze. Alice was gone. Where was she? Was she safe? Did they have her? Who the hell was so ready to kill him?

Something else clicked in the shadows of the observatory. “Drop it.” That low and deadly voice belonged to Alice.

Metal rang as it hit the floor and bounced. Jacob turned around. A small crossbow—that’s what had been aimed at his head. He looked up at its wielder. “Reggie!”

A confused look passed over the boy’s face. “Jacob? I thought … we all thought you were dead.”

Reggie didn’t look like the boy he’d played Cork with at the fair. They’d laughed together, played together, and won more strawberries than anyone could have hoped to eat by themselves. Then the walls came down.

Reggie looked thin, and his pale color spoke more of illness and isolation. A scar puckered along his left cheek, and Reggie raised his hand to cover it while Jacob stared.

“What happened?” Jacob asked.

Reggie dropped his hand. “What happened to
you?
”

Jacob hurried through their tale. He left out some details, but he told Reggie of everything from the Tree Killer to Gareth Cave, from Fel to the Butcher’s brother to the loss of Charles in Dauschen. It still hurt, talking about the old man like that, and it still boiled his blood.

“You really have a biomech leg?”

Jacob glanced at Alice. She shrugged. He pulled up the cuff of his denim pants and showed Reggie the plates that now formed his leg.

“Wow,” Reggie said, keeping his eyes on the biomechanics. “Does that mean you’re going to go crazy?”

Jacob shook his head. “Biomechanics aren’t like that anymore. What happened here?”

“Half of Parliament’s dead,” Reggie said, meeting Jacob’s eyes. “The Smith sentenced the Lowlands to death.”

“What do you mean?” Alice asked.

Reggie raised his eyes and almost snarled. “They’re executing anyone known to be from the Lowlands. They knocked down part of the wall, been throwing people off the cliff for weeks now. Bat’s hiding as many as he can, but once they find one of his hiding places, they’re sure to find the rest.”

“We need to tell Bollwerk’s Speaker,” Jacob said. “We can’t let that continue.”

“We’re gathering an army in the old underground station,” Alice said. “It’s not a lot, but it’s something. We need a bigger army.”

“Bigger?” Reggie asked.

“No we don’t,” Jacob said. He slapped Reggie’s shoulder. “We need bombs and brains and men on the inside.”

“Anything I can do,” Reggie said.

“What do you know of the underground?”

“Rumors, mostly,” Reggie said. “I’ve never been there myself.”

“You know the old lift out back?”

“Yes, we’ve been using it to take refugees to Cave. I know there are guards in the Highlands that know of it, but no one has shut it down. I don’t think all of the guardsmen support what’s happened to the Lowlands.”

“A lot of them are from the Lowlands,” Jacob said.

Alice filled a small leather sack with Burners and Bangers. “That’s one of the things we’re counting on. Once the resistance strikes, we hope the guards and the Spider Knights will join us.” She held the bag out to Reggie.

“Some of them won’t.” He looked into the leather sack and nodded. “The joy on their faces when they throw people from the wall …” Reggie shivered. “Just know some of them will never help you.”

Jacob squeezed his forehead. “If anyone wants to join us, take the lift to the old mountain path. They’ve opened the wall to the old station, so you can get there without much trouble. It’s … it’s through the outer wall though. So be ready for that.”

“I’ll see who wants to join. I have a few groups who work behind the Highland walls.”

“Like Bat?” Alice asked.

Reggie nodded. “Yes. They may be willing to help. If you need to relay a message, go through Bat. He’s the brain of the resistance in Ancora.”

“Have you seen my parents?” Jacob asked, not sure if Reggie knew who his parents were.

“I never met them,” Reggie said. “I’m sorry, but I wouldn’t know if I saw them.”

Jacob knew the answer would come eventually. He had to be patient, and he had to keep that small hope alive, a hope that faded with every new bit of horror he learned about his city.

“Did any of Archibald’s spies survive?” Jacob asked. “Any of their equipment?”

Reggie raised his eyebrows slightly. “He told you about the spies here?”

Alice nodded. “We spent a lot of time with him in Bollwerk.”

Reggie shook his head. He looked out at the sky through the crack in the dome overhead. “Now everything’s gone to hell.” He turned back to them after a moment. “None of them survived. None of the spies, I mean. The Smith knew more than he should have. The spies were rounded up and executed within a day.”

“What about their radios?” Alice asked.

“The transmitters? They were taken into Parliament along with everything else they found in the spies’ homes. I can only guess they wanted the technology for themselves.”

“No,” Jacob said. “They wanted to spy on Archibald’s network. If they had it turned on, they would have heard his attempts to contact the spies here. If they found the right frequencies, they may know a lot more than we think.”

“Maybe,” Alice said. “I don’t think they know we’re coming in through the old station though. It wouldn’t be left wide open like that.”

“Still, we better get back.”

Reggie held out his hand. “I’m glad you brought the resistance.”

“I’m glad you’re here to join it.” Jacob clasped Reggie’s hand. Reggie did the same with Alice.

“I’ll see you behind the walls.”

S
amuel tightened the
base of the tripod onto one of the chainguns and stepped back. “We shouldn’t have let them go alone.”

“I should have gone with them,” Gladys said.

“Quiet, Princess,” George said.

Gladys crossed her arms. “My complaining is no louder than Smith hammering those spikes into the ground.”

Smith smiled and lined up the last of the bolts. He brought a hammer down and the strike echoed through the catacombs.

“One hit?” Samuel said. “You drove that into the stone in one hit?”

Smith patted the biomechanics in his shoulder. “I can do some work on you if you would like.”

Samuel frowned. “No, I’m good. I’ll just spend five minutes doing what takes you one tap.” It may have taken him five times as long to drive the anchors, but when he pushed on the tripod, it didn’t move a hair.

“Drakkar should be back in minutes with Cage and the others. The relay of resistance fighters should not take more than two hours, assuming everything goes smoothly.”

Samuel glanced at Smith. “When was the last time
anything
went smoothly?”

The tinker swiveled the chaingun and chuckled. “You are not wrong, Samuel. You are not wrong. Alright, these mounts look good.”

“Jacob’s suggestion for their placement was well designed,” George said.

“I would have set the chainguns to defend the tracks. I would have been wrong. We could have been flanked on all four sides. I was not aware of the hidden passages and the old tunnels.”

George turned back toward the corridor that led to the station. “By design, I think. They have multiple escape routes and multiple attack points. If it was not for the cancer behind their walls, Ancora could have stood for millennia.”

Samuel swung his chaingun in a half circle. The belt slid smoothly and allowed a full range of motion. “I doubt that, George. Their aerial defenses have always been weak. One of Bollwerk’s warships could level this city with little problem.”