Steamscape (26 page)

Dive!

Theo slapped his hands over the back of his neck and plummeted forward. Dirt shot up into his nose, blocking his nasal cavities, forcing him to breathe through his mouth. The sharp curves of the crevasses had muted the whine of the biplane’s engine. It roared up and over the cliff behind him.

Theo rolled over and couldn’t help but grin. The impacts of the battle were shaking the entirety of the badlands, but he had to smile.

That sweet, dark voice was back, telling him how to survive. It was more than a spark – it was a tower of flame. Always alert, always burning. He wasn’t lost anymore. He had his anchor.

Theo wiped his sweaty forehead, smudging dirt across it. He stared up at the sky, stealing a moment of peace. The moons were late in rising tonight, but the coiling, ever-changing pulses from the aether bands illuminated the badlands just enough. He watched the curling hues forever in motion, lighting the ground beneath his hands for just a few seconds.

Theo pushed himself up on his elbows and twisted his neck around. He saw everything. Flame holding Solindra hostage and then stumbling away from her, clutching his armpit and crashing down the slope. The overhead dirigible tilted intentionally toward the earth as it vomited streams of fire onto the hill.

His mouth dried. He clawed his way forward on the ground. He hadn’t come this far just to see it end. Not like this!

The rain of fire moved off the mound and into the scattering herd of Steampower soldiers who had been crowded at its base.

A black Steampower biplane twirled in the air overhead and dived at the dirigible, shredding the balloon with its bullets. The light from the plane’s rotating guns seared into Theo’s eyes. He just stared, watching men trying to outrun death and the flames on their own clothing.

He could see the desperation etched across the dirigible’s crew as they sought to dump their endless stream of fire while they went down. And then he saw nothing but fire as a spark caught the gas in their balloon.

The fireball disappeared into a slender canyon.

Theo’s jaw hung loosely. He rubbed his eyes. He’d come to find the Hex. They had been his only hope.

Fires started to fade away with nothing to burn, leaving on blackened dirt tumbling down the hill’s sides.

“What can I do now?”

He stared limply at the blackened mound and its titangle. Its exterior had melted and the paint had curled completely off. The door kicked open and two women stumbled out. Jing followed them.

Theo rubbed his eyes again and a laugh exploded from somewhere inside. He pushed himself up to his feet and half-slid, half-ran down an embankment toward hill where the Hex and Solindra stood. Shouting, he waved his hands above his head, but his voice was lost in the chaos.

He bounced his shoulder off of a Steampower soldier and rolled into a knot of them. His fists snapped up; he’d learned to box from a carnival champion long ago. But these soldiers’ eyes were elsewhere.

The ships raining fire dragged his gaze upward. He wasn’t armed, nor was he wearing a Codic uniform. He pushed through some Steampower soldiers, hustling to their own stations and orders.

The bricoleur tripped over a body. At least he thought it was a body, until it groaned.

Theo stared down at Flame. An explosion boomed like thunder several yards away, but he didn’t hear it.

Flame’s eyes sprang open, the whites starkly contrasting with the dirt and blood that stained everything else about him. Theo’s hands clenched for weapons he didn’t have.

There he was, wounded and sprawled out. Blood seeped through the crisscrossing bandoliers onto his grenades and pistols.

Theo looked around for a weapon. He definitely had his choice with Flame’s bandoliers in reach. But how much time would that waste when seconds were suddenly worth hours? He spat and spun on his heel, poised to run. “There are bigger things than you!”

***

Solindra shouldered her rifle and aimed. She didn’t move much, but the next fire-bearing ship was twisting into the wind and starting to hover. Her father could probably have managed a trick shot that both pierced that balloon and ricocheted off the metal to cause a spark. She, however, narrowed her gaze on the pilot. Her finger hovered over the trigger.

The rifle went slack in her hands and she pointed it at the ground. She needed to be sure for her last bullet.

She jerked the firearm back up against her shoulder as someone charged straight up the mound, waving his hands.

“Theo!”

Drina rose up behind her like a shadow. The vessel spun to see the assassin’s arm back in mid-throw and the flash of light off a blade.

She didn’t have time to shout. Theo skidded to a stop and held up his hands. Drina’s hand shot forward.

Solindra brought the rifle’s barrel up and smashed it into her arm. The knife flew away behind them, bouncing off the titangle with a metallic clang.

“Drina, no!”

“You don’t know what he did.” Another throwing knife appeared in the Death Spinner’s hand.

“Wait!” Theo shouted, still holding up his hands. “I was wrong, but that’s not important right now! We’re all going to die.”

“No, just you.” Drina lifted up the new blade.

“Smith is going to explode Redjakel. The whole city. With an aether bomb.”

The knife didn’t move. “Go on.”

“What’s an aether bomb?” Solindra breathed.

Jing came up behind them, carrying the titangle’s broken door as a shield. “A discussion for a safer place. Death, we can take care of him after he talks.”

Solindra shook her head. “But what about Codic? Steampower will attack them.”

Theo inched up the hill and stopped just short of its crest. He put his hands on his knees and panted. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t know what kind of demon Smith was.”

“I’m not saying that we’re better demons.” Drina smiled tightly.

Theo, still gasping, shook his head. “Maybe. I don’t know. But Redjakel needs the Hex. Please. All that aether stored underground. There’s more.”

The ground rumbled underneath their boots as if in an earthquake. Overhead, a Steampower plane buzzed twenty feet off the ground and pulled up. Two Codic planes chased it. From below, Steampower bullets seared into the sky after the fighters.

But Codic had ten men and ten aircraft for every one of Steampower’s shiny armaments. A Codic biplane with its rotating gun swooped out of the sky and screamed toward the solitary Steampower biplane, its gun spitting.

The planes twisted around each other and spun up and over the nearest dirigible. Fire spilled over the airship’s side, ending the lives of a score of Steampower soldiers below.

Codic commanded the air, and Steampower had terrible terrain in which to shoot into the sky. They scattered like ants through an unknown maze, only managing the occasional pot shot.

Jing spat. “This was a bluff. Battle was to be real, but Codic got here before Steampower was ready.”

Theo’s hands slackened at his side. “But what about Redjakel and Codic? What can we do? All of those people in both cities never caused this war.”

Drina shrugged. “Which one do we have a better chance at succeeding at saving?”

“Neither,” Jing snorted.

Solindra planted the rifle on the ground. “Redjakel.”

“You sure?” the mechanic prompted.

She nodded. “Codic stands a better chance against men than the people of Redjakel do against the crypters.”

She lurched at the sight of the pale faces of the Steampower soldiers still around the mound. Most of them were haggard and detached, but the worst ones were the hopeful countenances that kept staring up at them, waiting.

Drina remarked, “We can’t do anything anyway. We’re not a flood by ourselves.”

Jing surveyed the badlands. “Battle’s already over. They’re just not done dying yet. Better to just hide because Codic is in no mood for prisoners.”

Solindra slung the rifle over her shoulder and stared down at her boots. “I wish… No, we have to go.”

She mouthed, “Forgive us.”

She didn’t want to look, but was helpless against staring back at those few hopeful faces. Boys her own age. When the Hex turned away, she could see they knew they were abandoned – betrayed to this hell by the company and by the Hex, their patron saints.

Another explosion rocked the far base of the mound, vanishing the hopeless faces in dirt and fire. Solindra turned away and let gravity pull her down the slope, her boots skidding on the rocky ground.

Jing pointed. “We’ve got our own ground transportation hidden away, just for us. Horses, but they’ll cover more ground in the badlands than an engine could.”

Solindra stopped. “Wait. Where’s Flame?”

“What? Why?” Theo demanded.

“He’s Adri’s knight, and I won’t be her pawn. We have to–”

A hand reached out from the mouth of a shadow-filled hollow and jerked her hair back. “I’m right here, darlin’.” Flame pulled her back another step and jammed a clockwork grenade into her mouth. “Thanks for askin’.”

Jing and Drina brought up their guns.

“No, no.” Flame jabbed his finger into Solindra’s shoulder.

“Flame…” the assassin growled.

He chuckled. “What do you want me to say? The Hex has been done for years.”

Theo struck a fistful of matches against the coarse soil and held them up in front of Flame’s face.

The arsonist’s eyes glazed over at the glow.

Theo smiled benevolently and stepped forward. He launched the handful of burning matches up toward the sky. Most of them blew out immediately, but several kept alight through their arcs.

Solindra jerked her weight forward. Flame’s grip tightened like a constrictor’s. Theo lunged, snatching one of the flares out of Flame’s bandoliers, ripping one of the bands off completely. He struck the flare alight against the rock and held it to Flame’s back. His clothes, already so saturated with oil, took up the fire.

The pyromaniac’s face seemed to melt. He dropped his grip on the vessel and started to claw at his back, spinning in rapid circles as the flames climbed higher. “Not fair, man, not fair!”

Theo kicked him hard in the chest back into the crevasse. Meanwhile, Solindra spat the grenade into her hand. Theo snatched it up without dropping his rhythm, pulled its trigger and hurled it after Flame.

It was the first of many explosions from the items on Flame’s remaining bandolier.

The light from the diamond moon sprinkled through the aether bands, invisible now but for their ever-changing colors. The other moon was but a glowing crescent. If not for the jewel moon, the ground would have been a living prism in the lights of the aether colors. The wind picked up, lifting fallen leaves into the rainbow hues. Off the bark of a tree. Off the puddles in the mud.

Off the flank of a cantering horse as it passed through the shadows. The rhythm of its hooves disturbed the still of midnight.

Three more horses followed in its wake.

Solindra furtively tried to massage her hindquarters. She’d never even ridden a horse before this. The rifle bounced along with its stride and knocked against the back of her skull again. There had to be a better way to carry that too.

She groaned and tried not to imagine the leathery calluses forming on her posterior. The mental image faded to be replaced by those hapless soldiers on the battlefield again. Or the image of those regular people in Codic, also left to die.

Jing called over. “Sit up, Sol, our ride ain’t over yet.” His gaze softened, as if he were reading her mind.

Theo growled, “We grew up being told the Hex could do everything. Be anywhere.”

“We were six people,” the mechanic replied, looking ahead. “Best we can do now is stay our course because it’s already too late to turn back.”

“Couldn’t we telegraph Codic?” Solindra burst.

“Who would believe it?” Drina rolled her eyes. “We don’t have any contacts in Codic’s civic government anymore.”

“But… we’re the Hex.”

“Anyone could claim to be the Hex on telegraph. Many used to, actually. That’s why we used code.”

Jing’s brow narrowed. “Would anyone still have that code?”

“Doubtful.”

Solindra slouched down into the saddle. “But we could try?”

Drina and Jing exchanged a glance. He said, “We’ll try if we find a telegraph. Hope someone can get the word out. But we can’t risk telephone or radio.”

“Rather worry about this aether bomb,” Drina muttered, “because I’ve never heard of such a device before.” She cast a look over to the mechanic.

“It was an idea.” Jing shrugged. “But the theory always failed in trial. It would take a crypter to get it to work.”

The only sound was the drumbeat of the hooves.

“Or a supposedly ancient order of crypters?” Theo suggested.

“I know, kid,” Jing replied.

Solindra scowled. “No, because crypters direct the aether. The aether then moves the steam. At least I think. I’m certainly no expert.”

“Transfer of energy,” Jing said. “Aether moves energy through it, so in theory, with enough aether…” He swallowed. “This will be bad.”

“That’s what Smith said.” Theo leaned back in his saddle to look at the mechanic.

“But it only works with steam!” Solindra protested. “I’ve seen that.”

“To start, but with an enormous supply of aether and a chain reaction–” Jing broke off. “Such an amount of aether shouldn’t even be possible to get. You’d have to have ships harvesting it for years from the bands, at altitudes where your hands turn black from the cold and you can’t even breathe. Not even the crypters can do that, not that I know of.” He looked back at the bricoleur.

Theo shook his head. “Don’t ask me. I didn’t get to see any of it. But I remember that pure aether.” He shivered, thinking back to that moment where he’d thought he’d followed Merlina into the alley. Then he slouched forward. She couldn’t have been there. Smith had seen to that.

His grip tightened on his reins. At least Flame had never pretended to be on his side.

“Redjakel should be in sight by dawn.” Drina leaned forward and tapped her horse’s flanks with her heels. They charged onward through the glowing silvery light of the diamond moon.

“If it’s still there,” Theo muttered as he dug his own heels down. “Hyah!”

***

The city stood. Golden sunlight reflected off the brass of Steam Central’s skyscraper. Solindra patted her mount’s neck as the animal grazed on the grass at their feet.

“It looks so peaceful from here,” the vessel said.

“I don’t think we’ve ever been in so much danger,” Jing murmured.

Drina shrugged. “We can ride away. We don’t have to do this.”

Solindra set her jaw. “No. We left the soldiers and we left the people of Codic. We’re all Eliponesians. We’re not leaving the people of Redjakel. Not unless they have their hands stained by their own actions.”

Jing leaned away from her. “Meaning?”

“If you see Saturni or Adri, shoot them.”

Drina nudged the vessel. “Of course, by saving everyone – on the off chance we succeed anyway – we save those two too.”

“A bullet is more personal anyway.”

The Death Spinner blinked. “That sounded like Silvermark.”

Jing patted the assassin’s shoulder. “Alas, Solindra’s no longer our little Cylinder.”

Solindra ignored them. “Theo, your turn. Where is Smith?”

The bricoleur frowned. “I can show you where he last was.”

“You’d best do better than that.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He almost saluted sarcastically, but held himself steady. The others were right. This was a new person, not the girl he’d met before. He lifted his foot into the stirrup and hesitated to swing his other leg over. Was this new person worth endangering his life for?

He slid into the saddle and gathered up the reins. Why not? He’d killed Flame and now had no idea what to do with the life he still had. “What’s our plan, Sol?”

“Stop this aether bomb.”

Jing grunted. “I don’t want to mess around with it while the Reaper’s there. I’d rather just break his fingers so they can’t work the bomb’s triggers.”

“I vote we avoid Smith,” Drina said. “Or I can deal with him while you three blow yourselves up trying to be noble.”

“Right, Death.” Jing rolled his dark eyes.

“We might not run into him at all.” Solindra stared ahead at the city in the growing dawn. She could see differences now. Refugee tents dotted the plain in front of the city. All the roads were now blocked with wooden barricades. As they trotted nearer, she could see that not all of them were manned. She guessed it was because most of their army had gone off to war, and then wondered if they had beaten the news of the battle here.

They unsaddled the horses and turned them loose as they neared the city. They slinked wide around in the shadows and approached a barricaded avenue. The hasty construction had led to an uneven wall.

Solindra slung the rifle over her back and started to climb without a word. Drina followed her up like a spider, quickly overtaking the younger woman. Theo came after. Jing’s metal prosthesis forced him to climb slowly, using his muscled arms and one leg. The steampowered leg hung like a dead weight.

Warning bells started screaming as they descended to the street. They froze, watching and listening. But no one seemed to converge on them. In fact, they didn’t see anyone at all.

“What’s going on?” Theo cocked his head into the wind. “That’s code! They’re signaling in telegraph code.”

Both Solindra and Jing held up their hands for silence.

The bell tolled: - .... --- ..- ... .- -. -.. ... -.. . .- -.. -.-. --- -.. .. -.-. .--. .-. . ... .. -.. . -. - .. .- .-.. ... --.- ..- .- .-. . .-.-.- ... - -- .--. .--. .-.. .- -. . ... --. .- ... .-.. .- -... .. . .-. ... .--. . . -.-. .... .-.-.- -.-. --- -. -.. - --- .-. .-- .... . .-. . -... - --- ..-. .--. .-. . ... ..- -. -.- -. --- .-- -. .-.-.- ... - -- .--. .--. .-.. .- -. . ... -... -- -... -.-. .. - -.-- .- ..-. - . .-. --. ... .- - - -.- .-.-.-

They waited in stillness and darkness for the bell to sing its verses. Tears started to slide down Solindra’s cheeks.

Drina shrugged. “I got Codic.”

“Shh!” Jing shook his head stiffly for silence. Even his lips were tight.

Solindra pressed her hands to her ears. “That’s it. It looks like Steampower won.”

“No.” Theo mashed his fist into his other open palm. “They don’t have an army left. What happened? I couldn’t pick that up.”

Jing dropped his chest. “Steampower gassed President LaBier’s speech, where apparently most of the city had gathered. Thousands are dead, maybe even half the population of the city is at least wounded. LaBier’s condition or whereabouts remain unknown.”

“We knew this would happen,” Drina whispered.

Solindra gasped. “We’re all from the same country. The people haven’t forgotten that. How? How could they?”

Theo took her hand. “Then let’s do what we can here.”

Solindra nodded.

He dropped her hand and led them through alleys. They remained in the shadows. Away from the open areas and the glow of the Light District, the winds stole the warmth from the city. Their boots crunched over discarded gears and other trash.

“This one.” Theo rapped his knuckles softly on metal side of the warehouse and listened. Nothing moved from inside. “They pumped the aether into the underground here. I saw Smith fiddling with it when we dropped off the switchpacks.”

“Switchpacks?” Solindra whispered.

“Shh!” Theo waved his hand behind his head, pressing his ear up against the door.

“Over at least a year,” Jing mused. “Nobody would notice dirigible balloons coming in for repairs in this district, I bet. Maybe they–”

“Shh!” Theo hissed again.

Drina raised an eyebrow and a knife behind the boy’s head.

Jing and Solindra shook their heads.

Theo turned around to a sweetly smiling assassin with her hands behind her back. He shook off whatever thought he had at her expression. “It’s quiet. Probably the best we’re going to get.”

“I don’t like it,” Solindra whispered. “Too quiet, you know?”

“This is where the aether is. They can’t possibly have moved it.”

Drina purred, “And you said that this was the only supply they had left?”

Theo nodded. “But I think it’s the bigger one.”

“Then that’s more than enough to cripple Redjakel permanently,” Jing murmured.

Solindra swallowed. “All those people.” She shook herself free from her horrifying daydreams and pulled on the sliding door. “Let’s do this.”

Jing pushed open the door just enough for them to slip inside. “This would be a good time to spring the trap.” Beside him, Drina nodded.

“Trap, Mr. Li?”

A match flared in the gloom of the warehouse as Smith lit a lantern. He smirked in the growing light. “There is no trap. Traps require illusion or misdirection. This is only reality.”

Solindra froze, trembling. Smith was here! She tried to flex her hands, but they were suddenly numb.

Theo stumbled back toward the door. “I didn’t know. I didn’t know! You said you would leave it empty.”

“Yes, but I was lying, Mr. Meilleur. In fact, I even told you that you were bait and still you didn’t puzzle this together.”

Drina whirled on Theo, slamming him against the wall. He started to gasp, but felt a prick against his skin. A single drop of blood stained her stiletto.

“Ms. Death, please. He’s nothing but my unwitting errand boy. You wouldn’t kill the bootblack, would you?”

Drina never looked away from Theo’s terrified eyes. “I have before.”

“I am not surprised, or frightened, by that admission.” He twiddled his mustache. “Now I can destroy the vessel and Redjakel together.”

“I’m innocent.” Theo closed his eyes and then an icy sensation chilled his spine and blood. He couldn’t pray to the Hex. He had no one left. He didn’t know any other patron saints.

“He is.” Smith’s glass cane echoed as he tapped it against the concrete floor while he stood. “Remember, innocence is synonymous with ignorance.” He snapped his gaze over to Solindra. “And you, thing, don’t you dare point that shiny toy at me.”

Her fingers fumbled her grip on her father’s rifle. She had it halfway up to her shoulder. She knew he wasn’t armed; she knew she could shoot him. But she just couldn’t make herself stop being numb long enough to just do it. It was like touching a stove when she knew it was cold, but she’d felt that heat before and couldn’t bring herself to risk the burn.

A few feet away, Drina winked at Theo. She spun and launched the stiletto at Smith.

He parried with his cane, but the knife still managed to graze his forearm, opening a small slice. The Death Spinner shot off two more knives. The Reaper charged Solindra, bringing his cane up like a sword.

Jing held up his fists and stood in Smith’s path. He caught the cane in both hands, and he and Smith grappled for a moment. The blue sancta swung in between the two men, suspended on a chain around the Reaper’s neck.

Smith grinned and gritted his teeth at the same time. “It seems I have the advantage.”

Jing jerked up his metal knee into Smith’s thigh. The Reaper hardly flinched. Then Jing smirked.

The gunshot echoed like thunder inside the metal walls of the warehouse. Jing’s knee smoked as the barrel retracted back inside its casing.