Steamsworn (Steamborn Series Book 3) (37 page)

The screams began. Screeches of warning, hysterical shouts, and the terrible clicking chatter of a thousand Red Death surging through the caves below Ancora.

“Fall back!” Cage’s voice carried above the shouts and gunfire that turned the world to chaos. “To the catacombs!”

Jacob didn’t look back. The noise was all he needed to know. He ran, crossing the bridge as fast as his feet would carry him. The scream of failing metal sounded behind him, and he didn’t have to see it. The gates had failed. Metal slammed against stone in a thunderous calamity, and the very air shook with the sound.

Jacob risked a look back over his shoulder and slid to a stop. Gladys was back there. She was limping and had George’s arm around her shoulders, helping him move through the throng of panicked men and women. The Red Death flowed from the shattered gate, piling one atop the other, screeching as they went, and the Widow Makers took to the ceilings.

Men from Fel swung into the station with the horde. Some were trampled by their own supposed allies, but others ran freely among the Red Death, untouched and nearly impossible to track.

“Above you!” Jacob screamed. He raised the air cannon and fired. One of the Widow Makers went to pieces, raining down onto the Red Death and dying resistance below. The horde trampled two dozen people in a heartbeat.

A shock of red hair ran past him. Alice sprinted to Gladys and George, taking George’s weight from the other side. Jacob couldn’t hear what they were saying, but it looked like George was yelling for them to leave him behind.

One of the Fel soldiers leapt out of the tide of Red Death, running at Alice, running at his friends.

“Alice!” he screamed and pointed. He didn’t have a clear shot. He’d hit George or Alice or Gladys.

Alice dropped George’s arm and spun. The soldier hesitated, and Alice uppercut him through the lower jaw. The anchoring bolt fired into his brain, sending a spray of blood from his mouth. Alice didn’t stop to watch him die. She was back with George and Gladys a moment later. The soldier’s corpse vanished into the crush of invaders.

Jacob pulled a Firebomb and a Burner out of the pouch at his waist. He clicked the igniter, closed the outer shell, and hurled it as far as he could. It bounced off a Red Death and then vanished into the horde by the gate.

The explosion rocked the entire station. Dust and loose rock fell from the ceiling, peppering invaders and allies alike. The tunnel channeled the blast, tearing apart forty feet worth of Red Death in either direction.

“Go!” Jacob screamed when Alice and the others reached him. He raised the air cannon and fired again, and again. The relentless pop of a chaingun tore through the air, laying waste to the first line of Red Death and strafing the ceiling. Widow Makers fell into the horde to be trampled and consumed by the beetles.

Jacob backed quickly, bumping into allies and tripping over the dead. The sharpshooters had taken out more people than he’d realized. Knights and resistance fighters alike were discarded and trampled in a grotesque mixture of blood and bodies and death.

The walls of the catacombs closed in around him as he backed into the corridor. Smith stood at the entrance, strafing where he could.

A blood-soaked Cage came running at them at full speed, flanked by Drakkar. The left side of Cage’s helmet was a ruin of mangled metal. The blood running down his neck said the wound beneath wasn’t superficial.

“Use the bombs!” Cage shouted. “We have four ways out of here. There’s still a chance. Bring it down!”

“Fall back!” Smith said. “Drakkar, the bombs are in my backpack! Use a Banger!”

The Cave Guardian didn’t hesitate. He pushed on Smith’s back, located the bombs, and pulled them out in three quick motions. Jacob handed Drakkar three Bangers, one for each of the monstrous bombs.

“Last three!” Smith shouted. “Make them count!” He stepped forward and strafed the horde, leaving enough room for Drakkar to step forward and hurl the bombs.

Jacob watched the bombs arc through the air. If the tunnels fell on top of them, that was the end. No one could survive a cave-in like that. One sailed to the front of station, the second closer to the breach into the lower tunnels, and the last shattered a window on the old bookstore.

Smith’s chaingun clicked when his last belt fell empty, and he grabbed Drakkar, pulling everyone back behind the mounted chaingun. It was only then that Jacob realized some of the steam and smoke he thought rose from the chaingun actually rose from Smith’s biomechanics. The tinker grunted and cursed as he disengaged the biomech boosts he must have been running since the battle started.

Jacob pumped the air cannon and blasted the nearest invaders.

Alice already had her fingers wrapped around the trigger when Smith stumbled past, and the chaingun roared to life, cutting through the first of the invaders to reach the catacombs. She couldn’t stabilize the fire the way Smith had with his biomechanics, but the wild shots still cut a deadly path.

Jacob stared and shot into that writhing sea of death. Nothing but darkness and bursts of fire greeted his eyes in the wait for the bombs. He didn’t think the delay had ever seemed so long. When Red Death and Widow Makers began to crush themselves, pushing into the catacombs, the bombs detonated.

M
ary stared out
of the Skysworn’s windscreen. The mountainside smoked where the entrance to the underground station once stood. Now, for all she knew, her friends were lost and buried.

She glanced at the floating fortress beside her. A Porcupine warship in Ancora … how? Why?

The speaker beside her crackled to life. “Skysworn, this is Archibald, come in.”

Mary blinked and stared at her transmitter. She clicked the button. “Archibald?”

“Yes. I apologize for the radio silence. It was necessary.”

“What about Bollwerk?”

“The city still stands, guarded by Warship Two and a Porcupine. Your bombing run slowed Ballern’s fleet and evened the engagement. We cut them down, thanks to your discovery of a weakness. Speaking of which, the Master at Arms of this fine warship would like to ask about those bombs. Another time, though, another time. We had to dock Warship Two for repairs, but it should be back in the skies before long.”

Bollwerk survived the attack after all. She’d been worried that no place would go unscathed in this mad conflict. Mary’s gaze roved across the cratered mountain. A few surviving Red Death skittered aimlessly inside the debris. The horde itself lay mangled and shattered across the earth, except for what had made it inside.

“Archibald?”

A burst of static preceded his response. “Yes?”

“Smith and the others were in the station when it collapsed.” Saying the words gave them truth, and the thought of Smith lost in that ruin cut her to the bone.

“There are miles of tunnels beneath Ancora,” Archibald said. “Charles …” Archibald laughed and sighed. “Charles used to say if you straightened out the tunnels beneath Ancora, they’d stretch all the way to Belldorn.”

“They knew about the tunnels,” Mary said. “They were planning to reach Parliament through them.”

“Do not lose hope. If the entire station is gone, they’ll be forced to climb up through Parliament, or one of the old watchtowers. Either path will bring them into the courtyard in front of the Castle.”

Mary let the Skysworn drift higher, until she could see over the wall. There were still soldiers sprawled across the courtyard. Men still fought and bled and died. If Smith and the others had survived the collapse … what if they weren’t in good enough shape to fight again? A cluster of men dressed in knight-like armor stood at one end of the courtyard. The dead citizens around their feet told Mary all she needed to know.

Mary clicked her transmitter. “Then we clear a path.”

Archibald released a cold, terrifying laugh. “Allow my new friends to assist you.”

The Porcupine rose beside the Skysworn.

*     *     *

Jacob’s father had
once told him what a mine collapse felt like. The thunder, and darkness, and hopeless terror that rose up while the world swallowed you.

The bombs added their own instruments to the chaotic symphony of stampeding invaders and the cannon fire of a warship outside. The first shattered hundreds of Red Death, causing the press of beetles and Widow Makers in the catacombs to slide back out into the station, the pressure behind them no longer there.

It cleared the tunnel enough that Jacob and the others could see into the station when the second bomb exploded. A short burst of flame and light showed the shattering of a thousand carapaces as it shook the earth beneath their feet and ripped through the bridges above the tracks.

The last blew out the face of the bookstore, and though Jacob couldn’t see it from that angle, he knew where the glass and brick came from. More bugs broke apart into a mass of gooey black pieces. The dying glow of their red eyes made a terrifying spectacle.

The shaking didn’t stop. It rose into a frantic shiver as the mountain shifted. Stone and rock and steel fell from the cavern ceiling, crushing Red Death and sending Widow Makers to the tracks in pops of gore. Cannon fire echoed from outside the station, and the reports still shook the air, but the shaking beneath their feet was something more. The mountain roared as larger and larger pieces fell into the remnants of the old station. A boulder the size of a house gave way, bringing mud and water with it.

“Yes!” someone shouted from the catacombs behind Jacob.

Jacob glanced at Alice when she let off the chaingun. The worry etched across her brows only confirmed what he thought. There was nothing good about that at all.

“Fall back!” Smith shouted. “It is caving in!” The tinker threw his own chaingun onto the ground and picked up Alice’s instead.

Jacob wrapped his fingers into Alice’s and forced their way into the throng of men and women and children behind them.

“Follow me!” Jacob shouted. “I’ll lead you out.”

The earth shook again. One glance back toward the station showed him only darkness and a rough stone wall where the entrance to the catacombs once stood. Smith’s discarded chaingun lay crushed on one end, entombed beneath a massive stone.

Jacob’s heart leapt until he found the tinker on the edge of the cave by one of the mummies, staring wide-eyed at the fallen cavern. Everyone froze as the thundering collapse continued and dust rose up in heavy clouds around the blocked entrance.

Alice slid her arms around Jacob and shivered. “Where are the others?”

He didn’t know. He’d lost track of Samuel and Bessie, and Gladys and George. Drakkar stood beside Smith. He held a lantern and led the tinker through the shouting masses until they reached Jacob.

“Lead them back to the interrogation room,” Drakkar said. “We can get back to the surface through there.”

“Have you seen Samuel?” Alice asked. “Or Gladys or George? I haven’t seen Gladys since we came back to the catacombs.”

Drakkar took a deep breath and shouted, “Silence!”

The entire room quieted.

“Princess, are you here?”

A shuffling at the far end of the room, by the wall of dead nobles, ended in a girl climbing up onto one of the crypts. Gladys, bloodied but alive, waved.

“Is George with you?” Drakkar shouted. “Is he well?”

“Yes, and mostly.”

Drakkar nodded.

Something shifted above them and caught Jacob’s eye. “Bessie?” The Jumper hung from the ceiling. Her saddle was empty save for a splash of blood. Jacob’s voice rose and panic turned his stomach. “Samuel?”

An old man with a bandage wrapped around his upper arm looked up. “You looking for the knight that rides that?”

“Her,” Jacob said. “Bessie’s a her.”

The old man nodded. “He’s over in that makeshift hospital they set up down the hall. Took a nasty blow to his left arm. Should live though, long as it doesn’t get infected.”

“Where at?” Jacob asked. He pushed forward as fast as he could, dragging Alice with him.

When they were closer, the bandaged man pointed deeper into the catacombs. “Second or third hall on the left. Leads to a … well, I think it’s the room they used to prep these mummies.”

“Thank you,” Jacob said with a frown. “Can you start taking these people down to the lake?”

“The lake, young sir?”

Farther into the catacombs, past the halls, you’ll find a lake. It’s near the exit. I’ll lead you there, but I need to check on my friend.”

The old man smiled and nodded. “I would be glad to be of some use, young sir.” His voice took on an authority that surprised Jacob. The frail old man was not what he seemed. “Attention, all. Take those who cannot travel into the hospital. The rest with me. We make for the underground lake and wait for our young master.”

He turned back to Jacob and whispered. “Now go. I’ll keep an eye on your other friends for you.”

Jacob stumbled forward. “Who are you?”

“A friend of Charles von Atlier, Jacob. Let us leave it at that.”

There were a dozen more questions he wanted to shout at the man, but Samuel was the priority. Once they’d seen Samuel, they could leave, and hopefully take the Spider Knight with them.